Shuji Katayama
OVERLORD
Studio Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!XzgnEA5b!Q5NQkgLYzfnP3bXbMzi9hJNzQ-6bEY3V8kUh1hFwFuA)
Cinematic Suite (Sample)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIgQe2EkorI)

With Tanya and now Overlord I think I found a composer that wholely embraces modern tools but who uses them with skill and intelligence. Once upon a time Taku Iwasaki wrote in similar fashion the 2000s and it's no surprise I have a similar reaction to this music as its really full of references to Iwasaki's 2000s work, Gurren Lagann pops up quite frequently in Tanya. But Taku's a genius so don't expect the same level of writing. His use of harp and winds also remind me of someone: Sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cYr-3afTxs).


That's him at the Recording Session of Tanya.

He is part of Yasuharu Takanashi's unit (Team-MAX). He also did many of the orchestral parts of Super Robot Wars V and X together with Hiromi Mizutani and others, so that clears the mystery who was responsible.

If you have an aversion to the RC sound I'm afraid OVERLORD will do little to change your mind but if you have a soft sport for Zimmers work in the 90s and early 2000s, and want to hear it with a bit more class, this is for you. Maybe it's his classical education that really shines through even at its most action oriented moments (Sample (http://picosong.com/w93NZ/)), or it's his skill with orchestral brass which other modern composers like Yokoyama and Hayashi are soley lacking (though they are improving), or the fact he fully embraces Leitmotif writing, something modern scores in general lack, or perhaps because I must like him since he is a keyboard player and jammed in band (He also somehow incorporated the Hell March from C&C into an anime score), either way, there's something really appealing about his music I dig.

Where as Tachibana's Darling except a couple of cues I like was a miss, this one is a hit for me in being a merge of classic and modern.

He joins the ranks of Fujisawa, Suehiro and MICHIRU as composers I have a great interest in seeing develop. I see so much potential in all four of them and all are now in a position where their careers are taking off. Katayama has two shows this summer. Overlord S3 and Angolomois and the upcoming Tanya Film. I'm curious if we get to hear him in Super Robot Wars mode soon after.

In any case, I hope you enjoy it.



And since pensquawk rightfully remarked we are downplaying the new generation of composers, I have something here:

The Next Generation of Anime/Media Composers (Classical Film Suite)



Download (https://mega.nz/#!TvIiVSAK!V_gpVtXwnSkAaKgooj7Ca7HkhNp2Qfq6hw7phAsuajw)

Sample (https://vimeo.com/276010148)

My favorites are all veterans or semi-retired in the business of course and their cumulated works of about four decades will always be there, but the next generation holds much potential. Even excluding unfortunate one-shots (so far) like Souhei Kano, Yo Tsuji, or Misa Chujo or new appearing promising newcomers like Shunpei Ishige or FILM SCORE, there is enough potential assembled by the ones that are getting projects and (right now) have doors opened to a prosperous career. Here is the very best the next generation has offered so far, and I'm looking forward to hear more. I'm really happy these obviously classical composers are out there and working AND the whole Legacy Brigade is still working too, each and every score still full of personality. I must treasure this rare period in time were I can enjoy the output of entire generations.


EDIT: And more from the young ones: Taku Matsushiba had a recording in a hall with Ensemble FOVE



And moving a bit up in generations, Natsumi Kameoka is at Victor Studio recording something. I swear to god, how many is that now!?

Quickly threw this together to compliment Wataru for Vinphonic's recent Asakawa compilation, in case anyone wanted the "complete score":


Chou Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru (Toshihiko Sahashi side)

Sample (http://picosong.com/w9qmr/)/Download (https://mega.nz/#!ObRySA4K!uR-Hh4rr7i_Io_ASBuQl6UIXHBr8V8IjMzYgiuSUBkM)

Unlike Asakawa's contributions, Sahashi's score is very typical of what you would expect from 80s and 90s super robot kid shows. But even though there is quite a bit of catchy jazz, funk, and electronica in this, there's also a good helping of that good old Sahashi orchestral sound, which I showcased in the sample. Surprisingly, this is a very cohesive score, with its own lot of themes that it develops throughout the album. And unlike Asakawa's music, Sahashi's sits perfectly at home with the jazz-hybrid ensemble, which showcases its strengths very well here in its area of expertise. Also surprising is that there is no overlap in any themes with Asakawa's score. Asakawa's score itself also has no Sahashi in it other than a somewhat tacked-on reorchestrated version of Sahashi's Wataru main theme at the end of 'Strongest Rhapsody'. For the most, it seems Sahashi and Asakawa worked totally independent of one another other than using the same orchestral ensemble.

My tinfoil hat theory is that Asakawa was hired first and asked by the producers for a "jazzy, upbeat adventure score". Asakawa, who only understands orchestra, probably misinterpreted the request (much in the same way as when he was asked for an upbeat pop OP song for Candidate for Goddess years later) and so handed in this: http://picosong.com/w9qJV/ http://picosong.com/w9qSm/
Because what screams "jazzy, upbeat adventure score" for kids more than the harsh dissonant brass of Alex North's Spartacus? Obviously the producers lost their minds and would have totally fired Asakawa had he not been part of the JASRAC with Akira Senju putting a knife to their throats. And so they did the next best thing and hired another composer (Sahashi) to give them the sound they wanted, while still keeping Asakawa's score to be used sparingly in the show just because they were forced to. If this were true, it's no wonder the score credits were scrambled like eggs.

Tomoyuki Asakawa's arrangements (Sorcerian & Ys)

Delightful music arrangements from Mr Asakawa, joined from two albums. 23:00 minutes.
Harp and From Medusa's Head "Forest" are from Sorcerian III. Quiet Time, Tearful Twilight and Shining Key are from Ys II.Enjoy it:
https://mega.nz/#F!QfgmSahI!23VkzL48pL1SsBf4nd5ZKg

Looks like Yugo Kanno is the official jojo composer https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-06-21/jojo-bizarre-adventure-part-5-golden-wind-manga-gets-tv-anime-in-october/.133202

^Can't wait for more terrible variations of the Part 3 main theme and misguided dubstep attempts just because Iwasaki already set that precedent.

Makes me wonder if Iwasaki would have still been hired for Part 3 onward had he not handed in his very public resignation letter.

@sugimania: Thanks again

@Zipper: Never really noticed how much Ultraman Gaia (one of his best) there actually is in Wataru. I've been listening to that lately and it caught my attention.

@Jojo: Yep, he's overworked alright (and the music suffers). A new composer for each part would have made more sense but perhaps they were too afraid of another social media outrage. If there's one composer that badly needs a little hiatus to get some rest and back to strength, its him. Though Batman has some nice moments and I am nonetheless looking forward to his second "symphony" and that 10 minute piece for Grancrest Senki.

they were too afraid of another social media outrage.From what I understand, Hayato Matsuo was supposed to score part two too. But due to conflicts with another show he was working on, he abdicated that role to Iwasaki, who was a close friend of his. I think the "different composer for every part" aspect of the show was more due to unexpected events rather than something that was actually planned. Makes sense too, since having a single composer for a long-running franchise is how it's always been in Japan with few exceptions like Gundam.

Iwasaki is the only Japanese composer to my knowledge who has ever pulled those kind of publicity stunts, and a repeat offender to boot. I guess that abrasive personality is why he doesn't seem to have that many friends on his social media.

If you enjoyed last years GSJ Playstation concert, be ready for round 2, it will most likely be available on PSN much sooner. Also this is the 41st GSJ concert. Keep in mind last year's was the 23rd. That means almost 20 concerts from GSJ alone over the course of a one and a half years.

The company also opened up "ANIMATION SYMPHONY JAPAN" starting with an oddball but understandable given the popularity:



But rest assured, Gundam SEED and various other goodies are still popular as hell, so they will appear eventually. With the rate the GSJ concerts are skyrocketing, what gets released is another matter.

GSJ was also involved for various recording projects that will hopefully be announced soon.

In the other corner, JAGMO has a full-blown Gensou Suikoden orchestral concert and potential album in the works and let's just say there's a high chance it will turn up here ;)

Well, I didn't see this coming: https://vgmdb.net/album/78611

Pity it's Hirano's crappiest score to date... but still, nice to see a release.

knowing when this available?

The concert will be held on Nov, 3. But considering "VR" is mentioned I imagine they will maybe simulcast or release it in a close timeframe on PSN. And since the last one got an official release, there's a good chance this one will.

@Tango: Unexpected to say the least, I wonder if the movie score will also be included. That one could have some good stuff.

There's a movie? Did it get a proper score? I would've thought it would re-use the TV music...

Edit: Ah, looked it up, film doesn't exist yet. It might be decent, within the framework of what anime scores are like in 2018... :D

I'm looking forward to more rad af remixes of the main JoJo theme and lots of crazy Bambino-esque goodness filling out the rest cuz Kanno is the best JoJo composer by far. His work on SC and DiU just works far better overall than Matsuo or Iwasaki's efforts, mini operettas and long-winded dubstep experiments be damned.

Thanks for the Higuchi megapost, Vinphonic!

I normally just post these in the Oshima Thread, but since we have Oshima fans here and this is such a find (after many years searching) I thought I'd mention it here also:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TGXeq6-mEbgmF9K3X-7nzIaJRfsi3rlGncm6O1yY3zyea3sPKo0K9OJjJ4suXP-iEHyQ0LM8vGsufcy9xwq7XodY_a-zr4EL7fsu0NqYx9nZPryD7xnn-C5kMk-hGJQqqJsy9CHD6JrnInYgviazJh_q4klJTPh-g6UhNQf1ASAh1cQlErfJdqrwGzO1YwDFMfNNmoWUlOjYhlzxF0 c6mvjHMn9CbQpLIGKJu1NxrFbJePwjEmJKEXTUl0phi-eXpMrhlSOsV_y1TN1oi5Kn5DgwI-ousUIHoIL5Sk62tDUSEp3BNedBScX3efdCSHDL-dAYonkGtBNKUhmP3vVRIQS56UGwtITO9tyA51b2SFxxQgVWuff nCa3GsQCbVlRC2cKS-fRN3zxh9SB4-bvTQBgwXt2vPLUDfN_FlELRvN7SJQtkmRjWW0cAx1qfOBNDJYB QXqDY4Bh68HhSxaXSxJXpdqSI2W62Zj7Hhf1p0oYCd1vh44ftY 8-l3FLC2dxfXamVp0kocjprZawlhqnK0l1jHegPrWioCECQ_Oort Bnx14KbOvjR2uZGNv4BPXxL8bnan2FgiJW-jN5vD9L58vEsH5oc482qP_zURdU=w791-h350-no

GO HERE: Thread 225142

Many thanks, yepsa. Always grateful for your Oshima shares :)




Takayuki Hattori
GODZILLA: City on the Edge of Battle
Studio Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!UrBVlIwR!f-VlbFTS6WH5XUK9VJhAM8MNtPVZQH757CH9ND99O-4)

Sample (http://picosong.com/w99Eg)


On the soundfront this sounds superb for Sound Inn. Whoever mixed the percussion should replace all others for Hattori because Doraemon was insufferable by comparison. It's even better this time than for the first score. It never sounded so good honestly (Bye-bye tincan, I guess). Musically it depends on your taste, this is modern Hattori through and through. I really like the core of it and the synthezisers are given more character this time around and there's more dramatic weight instead of pure action as a welcome change. The finale (if nothing else) is musically superior to the first one which was all action, this one is more dramatic. This is the "film score", arranged, all the other tracks are in Outtakes, thus making it complete. I expect the final part to be released in November. I bet you could make a nice classic SciFi film score selection once it's out ;)

Your typical modern Hattori score; lots of squandered potential; immensely frustrating brushes of Hattori's orchestral and melodic genius that serve only to remind us what could've been. And, your typical modern sequel score; almost nothing original of interest, with pointlessly repeated and recycled cues glued together with non-descript material. There's enough in there that it's not a total dead loss, but between the straight repeats from the first score and cues drowned in noise, in real terms there's about five minutes worth hearing. On an 75 minute album, this is barely worthy of consideration. A marked drop in quality from the first, and the first, whilst pretty competent in places, doesn't challenge even an average Hattori score from the 1990s.

A great pity Sound Inn finally learned, ten years too late, how to record a semi-decent-sounding orchestral score. (The loudness war is alive and well, no dynamic range, room sound is all bad digital reverb - it's still a tin-can, acoustically bone-dry studio - they've just bought some fancy plugins for their DAW that make it not seem quite as bad, and finally got around to learning microphone placement techniques that were pioneered by Decca in the 1950s.)

I don't know, Slayers Great is still my number one Hattori disappointment, followed by Space Brothers. Can't get worse than that. And Godzilla is definitely not worse than his average 90s scores (there aren't even THAT many), where do you think his weird guitar and an onslaught of noise out of nowhere originated from (a few of those blueprints are even in Slayers) ;)

And even with all the modern tools, I vastly prefer this modern Godzilla over his previous efforts in that franchise, something about it is just boring and tedious to listen to, compared to the other live-action entries (this CG OVA/film trilogy is pretty much its own thing except the monster design). With Captain Herlock I vastly prefer Gundam Origin's drumbattery theme, the Tokyo Philharmonic does not guarantee my enjoyment and the rest of the score does nothing, or Shinsengumi sans Main Theme, couldn't hold on to a single note outside of that, there is actually more interesting music to my taste in Sanada Maru. Having even a symphony orchestra guarantees nothing except it will sound nice and comforting. If it fails to hold my interest I will discard anything "classic" just as much as I would do a syntheziser mess of RC (Looking at you, Fallen Kingdom).

If you ask me Hattori is at his best when he has to score roughly 30 ~ 60 minutes of orchestral music (Slayers, Yukai, Three Kingdoms, IQ etc.). Gundam The Origin and Sanada Maru are actually my favorite long scores of his and even that can be cut down to roughly 60 minutes of classic film score if you prefer. Anything longer than that and you are bound to find filler in his works.





Takayuki Hattori
NHK Taiga Drama SANADA MARU
NHK Symphony Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!g6hTVChJ!Z4r0navzXFzJ4--RjbFAhqno1s_KTPmo-9d3LaeQwbI)

Sample (http://picosong.com/w9L84/)

Thanks for Sanada Maru. I wish it was more like Romance of the Three Kingdoms V, but what can you do?

Best tracks after one listen: 12, 18, 41, 47, 51, 54

SampleAs usual with Hattori, great orchestration. Those first 10 seconds are quite something. Everything else... it's modern Hattori. :/

I don't understand how a guy who gets such good budgets for sizable orchestras and clearly knows how to use them still can't jot down anything interesting on paper worth listening to.

Anyone remember Space Brothers: http://picosong.com/w9Xgr/

A huge 60 minute score in that style, imagine... but NO, I don't like conventions, check out my rock. In the same year Watanabe wrote Space Brothers for Television... what the hell are you doing?!
This was a prime A opportunity for an Americana SciFi score ala Apollo 13 and for about three minutes that's what it is...

The only thing worse was Slayers Great, "what the fuck was that???", coming after Slayers: The Motion Picture and Slayers Return (which was too short but the material is excellent). Thankfully Slayers Gorgeous didn't disappoint but Slayers Special was a kick in the nut again. Fade-outs in a film score??? It was also too short and didn't conclude the thematic material/series in a satisfying manner. It also had an appearance of an unpleasant trade of Hattori: http://picosong.com/w9XQ9/

Hattori disappointing is as old as his career.

Godzilla 2 at least has an established sound and the sythezisers are at least consistent. I even like his genre blending enough to find it listenable and for me there's 20 minutes of orchestral music I can include to the first album and probably end up with 90 minutes of SciFi score ones Part 3 releases.

For the record with Sanada Maru and Gundam, I'm a fan of his dark, brooding 60s/70s Television style he employs, you just don't hear that sound anymore anywhere else and I take what I can get. I really really enjoy track 54 immenesly as well as many others.

He is still a composer I really like for his catchy 90s works, his 60s/70s Television sound, some of his modern scores I dig and his amazing orchestration chops. It's mostly grumbling from my side since he could do a conventional orchestral score anytime but chooses not to. Maybe if they are remaking Slayers (they're gonna) and hire him he gets a little more passionate.


Speaking of Americana sounding SciFi scores, Space Battleship Tiramisu gets a second season which increases the chance of a soundtrack and a potential movie. There's some good stuff in that silly show that I hope gets released.
For a newcomer quite something, it even fires some guns in the final episode of the first season: Shunpei Ishige - Space Battleship Tiramisu (Score Preview) (http://picosong.com/w9XZn/)

I recently saw this rare cd from Tomoyuki Asakawa:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fvGgaqo61s&t=41s
Can anyone get it?

If there is one good thing to come out of Asakawa's harp career, it's that it's making him happy and keeping him productive. Otherwise he might have ended up exactly like Korngold, who suffered from depression and illness in his later years due to his music being laughed out of concert halls and films, and then died early.

Toshihiko Sahashi
FULLMETAL PANIC! Invisible Victory
Studio Orchestra



DOWNLOAD (https://mega.nz/#!B3BhAQ5J!VZAGo0F6spjhsABRYKy3XpmAXn_7fBeO52NkfCU31rc)

Sample (this killed me) (http://picosong.com/w9gjP/)

Too tired but I made an exception for him (always will). A sensible listening order compared to the official release. The new score provides some much needed Leitmotif to the other material and his action while using modern audio tools ala action-thriller (appropiate for FMP) is as good as ever. Excellent writing all-things considered and highly energetic. It's so good to hear him again. His cue Up to now killed me, that Descant Horn statement of the A-Team followed by pure fullblown 80s... heaven. You can skip it of course and go straight to the complete score from all the orchestral/brass cues from all the soundtracks. IV completes it.


Toshihiko Sahashi
FULLMETAL PANIC! The Complete Orchestral Score (2001~2018)
Studio Orchestra



DOWNLOAD (https://mega.nz/#!M3IDQSKb!7s7t-2mT4yoDnpqhyltsiuVRXUeXBPfl-DnXRoVxZaM)

Sample (http://picosong.com/w9mMu/)

Well, thank you most sincerely for posting, of course.

Sahashi is finished as far as media scoring is concerned. If you didn't think that before, you have to now. He had a really, really great career - but now he's freewheeling and pandering to contemporary scoring techniques. It's clear that he only did this one for consistency and that he's not really interested in writing original scores any more - or, more likely, he's not being asked.

The score is remixes of original cues, awkward 80s rubbish, and slamming percussion. Why does almost every cue have to have wanky drum loops over it? So many cues that would be interesting, even good, but they're spoiled by shameless pandering.

One of the saddest examples of the downward trend I've heard; another nail in the coffin of Japanese symphonic scores. Just twelve years ago, we had Simoun, and just nine years ago, we had Element Hunters and the Gundam Symphony. Now we get this.

record of lodoss war symphonic fantasia track 19 and 23.this is even worse than the 300 vs titus travesty.can someone check if 19 has even ONE different note than the original track?

I think the context of the 300 thing was somewhat worse because it was ripping off music for a major blockbuster. Even Horner's Red Heat rip at least had a tinge of "I respect Prokofiev so much that here's a parody of the October Revolution Canata for this stupid action movie with some scenes in Russia." 300 was a talentless man in a position he didn't earn giving the finger to film scoring and potentially earning a lot of money doing it.

In this case, Hagita ripping off composers like Horner and Goldsmith was nothing new, and very few ever noticed.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: LEGION - THE COMPLETE SOUNDTRACK
Russell Brower, Neal Acree, Sam Cardon, Glenn Stafford, Edo Guidotti
MP3 192 CBR - 320 VBR | 2"18'15


[3:45] 1. Neal Acree - Azeroth's Last Hope
[10:42] 2. Russell Brower, Neal Acree, Sam Cardon, Glenn Stafford, Edo Guidotti, Jason Hayes & David Arkenstone - Kingdoms Will Burn (Legion Main Theme)
[2:08] 3. Neal Acree - Enter the Demon Hunter
[2:03] 4. Neal Acree - Mardum, the Shattered Abyss
[2:21] 5. Sam Cardon - The Dark Titan
[2:10] 6. Neal Acree - The War For the Keystone
[2:22] 7. Russell Brower - Tempest
[2:29] 8. Russell Brower - Relentless
[1:46] 9. Russell Brower - We Are Not Alone
[4:06] 10. Neal Acree and Russell Brower - Dalaran, the Violet Citadel
[1:33] 11. Neal Acree and Russell Brower - Dawn
[1:38] 12. Neal Acree and Russell Brower - Dusk
[1:06] 13. Neal Acree and Russell Brower - Proudmoore
[1:58] 14. Neal Acree - Khadgar
[4:31] 15. Neal Acree - Anduin Wrynn
[2:06] 16. Sam Cardon - The Hall of Devotion
[4:35] 17. Neal Acree - Sewers of Dalaran
[2:06] 18. Russell Brower - The Great Sea
[3:18] 19. Russell Brower - Stormheim, the Promise Land
[3:26] 20. Sam Cardon - Preserver
[2:18] 21. Sam Cardon - Halls of Valor
[2:12] 22. Sam Cardon - Oath to the All-Father
[3:34] 23. Sam Cardon - The Maw of Souls
[2:04] 24. Edo Guidotti - Val'sharah, the Dream
[0:47] 25. Russell Brower - A Glimmer of Memory
[2:07] 26. Russell Brower - Nos'sharah
[1:51] 27. Russell Brower - Memory Long Gone
[1:30] 28. Russell Brower - Winds out of the East
[2:18] 29. Sam Cardon - The Emerald Nightmare
[1:10] 30. Sam Cardon - Dark Heart Thicket
[3:12] 31. Edo Guidotti - Black Rook Hold
[1:15] 32. Russell Brower - The Rose
[3:04] 33. Russell Brower - Azsuna, the Relic
[2:04] 34. Sam Cardon - Pillars of Creation
[8:19] 35. Glenn Stafford - Highmountain, the Ancient Land
[5:49] 36. Russell Brower - Totems
[2:45] 37. Russell Brower - Suramar, the Nightwell
[1:41] 38. Edo Guidotti - The Nightborne
[1:33] 39. Russell Brower - Leylines
[1:37] 40. Russell Brower - Fel Glade
[2:37] 41. Edo Guidotti - Moon Rising
[3:10] 42. Sam Cardon - Requiem for the Lost Cities
[3:14] 43. Edo Guidotti - Graves of the Forgotten
[3:30] 44. Russell Brower - The Sanctum of Karazhan
[4:13] 45. Russell Brower - Canticle of Sacrifice
[2:28] 46. Neal Acree - Announcement Trailer
[4:08] 47. Neal Acree - Upon the Broken Shore
[2:19] 48. Neal Acree - The Fate of the Horde
[1:19] 49. Neal Acree - Ysera Returns to Elune


http://www.mediafire.com/file/p7u53h6gaisxxbl/WoWLCST.rar/file

Yeah, yeah, I know what you are going to say. "Doublehex, bro, Legion came out two fucking years ago! Where have you been? The answer was...well, around. What happaned was that I did the rip as usual. Download PTR, used CSAC Viewer to extract files, did my detective and music editing work to do my thing...you know, the usual. Except when it came to the cover. That was a bit of a bitch, and I decided "Eh, fuck it. I will get to it later."

Well, later never really ended up happening. And then I had a hard drive crash. Then I realized "Well, dude, you are a fucking retard." So I compromised my rules a bit and went with a "just as good" cover and redid all my work for the rip. And here we are.

So that's the story of how it took me two years to get this rip to you guys. Now let me tell you the story of how my rip for Legion ended up being only 2 hours long!

I have always had issues with how goddamn long my Blizzard rips were. Especially the ones for World of Warcraft. I always asked myself "Did they really write eight hours of music for each expansion pack?" And let's be honest, they didn't. Nobody had written eight hours of anything in a two year span. So I started to go through the music files with a more critical eye...and I noticed something. Blizzard organizes their files like thus: MUSX.# FILENAME A-H. X is for the major patch, so 2.0 for The Burning Crusade for example, while the # stands for the content updates. That is not the important part for this conversation - A-H is what I want to focus on. See what I noticed was that the only file that mattered was H. The H files were essentially the final product, with all the chorus, and all the layers of instrumentation, and they were longest by far. A-F (G does not exist in Blizzard's alphabet, do not ask me why I am just the messenger here) would be either separated layers of instruments, or it would be the entire theme but cut out at a certain point. Glorified stingers if you will.

So all this time, I have essentially just been giving you the same cue five or six times over. That's why you had so many tracks that ran for 8 or 9 minutes. And that just results in a horrid listening experience, let's be honest. Thus, is how I will be handling my WoW rips from now on. The fat will be sliced and thrown for the pigs, and what remains will be the finished products, as the composers (probably) wanted us to hear them.

If you really want someone to blame, go yell at Tangotreats @ THE BIG ORCHESTRAL ACTION MUSIC THREAD. He's the one who would always nag me about this. Look at him, not me; I'm the innocent victim here!

Good work there. Neal Acree remains the sole star of the WoW show and continues to knock things out of the park more than anyone else on the team.

I used to think high of Russell Brower until I realized just about every single piece of his I liked in his time at Blizzard were beefed up arrangements of stuff Jason Hayes had done for the studio in the late 90s and early 2000's when he was at Blizzard too. I wish the likes of Jason Hayes or good old Matt Uelmen of Diablo fame would take the leads on these games once more.

On a different note, each time I see a list of composers involved in WoW I keep thinking of Jeremy Soule who made a guest "appearance" in Pandaria's score a few years back with one stellar piece of music. I was hoping to hear more of him in WoW or Blizzard projects as a whole but somehow since then he seems like he's totally parked himself aside. He doesn't seem to be taking gigs no more. I wonder why.

Dude, you haven't even listened to the soundtrack yet. It hasn't even been an hour since I uploaded it, and the whole thing is more than two hours long!

Listen to the music before you start saying 80% of the composers aren't any good.

Dude, you haven't even listened to the soundtrack yet. It hasn't even been an hour since I uploaded it, and the whole thing is more than two hours long!

Listen to the music before you start saying 80% of the composers aren't any good.

I had listened to this content before. The full game-rip has been out there for the taking for long.
And don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to say the team is not doing a good job. They are leagues above most other game music composers. It was just a general thought about Acree and Brower's contributions and how I weigh their work lately. My thoughts about them has not changed from the above since Pandaria landed. Browser used to own it. But lately it is just Acree who carries the music in all Blizzard titles for me.

@Doublehex: Thanks for this, haven't heard it yet so this is very much appreciated.


@tango:

Well, I'm sorry you can't hear past the drums (but I totally understand), because this is still excellent woodwind, string and brass play and, ironically, much more (needed) Leitmotif than the original score or Second Raid.
It's all pure Sahashi, meaning lots of 80s, A-Team, Das Boot and Battlestar Galactica. Even his love for Horner is alive and well with the Danger motif.

This album is 100% Sahashi, whether you find the drums a problem or not. And I take offense to 80s rubbish, I wish there was a whole mountain of rubbish around me ;)
At the end of the day the drums are just a tool/another color and actually not even that distracting on paper, dynamics and all, it's just mixed atrociously (presumably by the same guy that mixed Doraemon). Put the drums a little in the background like Godzilla and it would sound much more natural. Its actually not that big of a deal for me anyway.

I find it silly to expect a symphonic masterpieces out of FMP of all things. Four soundtracks and over four hours of score in total before this one, and roughly 45 minutes of orchestral score combined, barely symphonic and frankly not his best.

Another thing I consider is not to expect another Simoun, his magnum opus, at the peak of his craft, since he has been out of the game for almost an entire decade and is no longer full of vigor topping himself year after year. He alos lost steam quite a lot before taking his absence. If you ask me he will never top Simoun again and the Gundam Symphonies (the third one now has some sort of finality to it as far as saying what he wanted to say goes), though we have to waot. That said this score is closer to King of Thorn than Soul of Gold and has far more energy. I vastly prefer it and hearing his voice again is quite something, especially complementing scores a decade old with new thematic material that is among my favorite cues from the series. Maybe he put it all into his Opera and doesn't care anymore but if we get to hear it is another matter (though its World Masterpiece Theater so maybe they will air it on television).

I wouldn't be surprised seeing his name pop up from time to time, and I expect him on the next Saint Seiya (coming in 2019). He still killed me with his Up to now cue, and that alone would be enough for me to look forward to another score of his.


No matter if Yamashita, Matsuo, Hattori or Sahashi use modern tools (they are NOT symphonic composers only), they are 100% written in their style, and I believe hearing them with drums is as far as its gonna go. Need I remind you what 90% of composers on the planet sound like nowadays: Every modern score ever (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds-r_uN7Le4) / forever (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HaUZ-MWppQ)

And now back to Sahashi's "modern" score: http://picosong.com/w9SET/

EVERY Japanese composer has a unique voice, a voice you maybe don't like or whose vocabulary you disapprove but a voice nonetheless. Go Shiina and Sawano both use modern tools, but sound nothing alike. The closest you have is Tachibana ripping of Sawano but even then you can hear differences in appraoching the same territory. I do not share this glasses of doom you are wearing and wouldn't have responded (I want the matter to rest) if it was not for your insistence. Perhaps I'm alone in this believe but the symphony orchestra is not going out of style, not in a country that has such an absurd love for it, and there's no shortage of composers who can write for it.

Hamaguchi has finally written and will most likely continue to write the music I love as an example, with his major succesful franchises (GuP tops even Love Live and Shirobako was a hit). Of course if you somehow think Tiramisu or Shima's Island are not promising first scores by newcomers I can't help you, our tastes are too different I'm afraid.

If Hamaguchi, Amano, Wada or Oshima are using 90% drums in their scores I'm getting worried, since that wouldn't exactly fit in my opinion. Case in point Oshima's next score in October: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yVedXph7Ig



But enough dwelling, more music I (we?) really enjoy:



Taisei Iwasaki
Hisone & Masotan
Studio Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!o6BXSC6K!KsJYs9nCrmtXQGtYH6w6zJ2FZNMptpujGzDbEmPL7Cw)

Sample (http://picosong.com/w9SNr/)

I wonder where this was recorded, sounds great for a Japanese score, especially the cellos and basses (but I guess Victor Studio). Dogfight and Natural Disaster are rad. I want to hear him on something SciFi next.
Surprisingly also the most traditionally Japanese sounding score in ages. Also the only show this season I really cared about, well, aside from Lupin (and Fumikiri Jikan). When Star Driver dropped I expressed how much I would dig orchestral songs in Japanese style and now there are lots and lots. Another example:

Song of Destruction (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4njOXCo8Ek)

The scores a miss but the songs are not, the soundtrack in september has the raw orchestra session. I take it :D



And surprisingly, once the big action starts, Die Neue These is very much alright, I'm now actually looking forward to the upcoming movie scores if they have the appropiate budget for the music here:

Die Neue These: Score Moments [Episode 12] (https://vimeo.com/277432519)


AND last but not least for the troubled mind my Doctor recommended me some Yugo Kanno's Sunday Afternoon Drama Theme Therapy, so here's the latest:



Half blue Overture (https://mega.nz/#!prByXAIK!F1FiYPJSv1vEOb6fOAoUJh6AsG-0RI6ogM3MWv0sRAQ)

Maiko Iuchi & Keiji Inai make a good combo if you ask me:
http://picosong.com/w9bib/
http://picosong.com/w9bMx/
http://picosong.com/w9bMG/

I also like what I hear of this MICHIRU Iida chick:
http://picosong.com/w9bW7/

Also here's the first song from KADO:
http://picosong.com/w9bvx/
I'm not really into this Iwashiro dude but AICO and parts of this I like

Also maybe unlike the rest of you but I really like the modern scoring style, maybe I am predisposed to it but I like it. Also I still think No Game, No Life has been my favourite soundtrack of the year so far, there's been others that are up there but so far none have topped it for me.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: LEGION - THE COMPLETE SOUNDTRACK
Russell Brower, Neal Acree, Sam Cardon, Glenn Stafford, Edo Guidotti
MP3 192 CBR - 320 VBR | 2"18'15

I really appreciate this share, thanks a lot! :D

AND last but not least for the troubled mind my Doctor recommended me some Yugo Kanno's Sunday Afternoon Drama Theme Therapy, so here's the latest:




Thanks for this. I always enjoy these light, uplifting themes from Kanno. Any chance you'll be able to share the full release?





Also here's the first song from KADO:
http://picosong.com/w9bvx/
I'm not really into this Iwashiro dude but AICO and parts of this I like


Wouldn't mind hearing this either, if anybody has it or has a link to stream it.

I have so much I'd like to say in response to that, Vinphonic; I'll refrain in a conscious effort not to irrevocably destroy whatever thread of friendship still exists between us.

Instead, I'll review Hisone to Masotan:

Well, overall I'm disappointed. It's not without its charms, and it's great to hear a composer not known for his orchestral credentials making a stab at writing orchestral music. That said, there are a hundred composers in Japan who can write a better orchestral score for this project than Iwasaki. Given the comparative rarity of scores these days that allow the orchestra to carry the music on its own at least sometimes without drowning in them in drum loops, synthesisers, or Hollywood-style slamming percussion, I wish they'd been given the opportunity to do something genuinely magnificent. As with almost every recent score that can be reasonably classed as orchestral at least in part, this suffers from the inevitable budget issues - the full orchestra is there only for a handful of cues.

The good; the main theme is lovely - even Hisaishi-esque - and it's distinctive enough that it can still be recognisable when stripped down to its most basic building blocks. It's also magnificent to have such a piece as the OP song - and especially nice for the piece to receive a proper, four minute expansion on album. Unfortunately, it seems that Iwasaki or the producers were a little too pleased with the theme, as the entire score is dominated by it - and the exact same recording features three times on the album in different mixes; once as heard in the show, once minus the vocals, and once with a small chorus; it's nice, but it's overkill.

In all, it saves this season - just - from mediocrity.

Yugo Kanno's latest theme:

It really is time for Kanno to move on and try something different, now. Gunshi Kanbee was a promising start, but of course Kanno's first outing with a large orchestra and a serious subject matter also turned out to be his last, and the Japanese scoring environment simply does not, in general, permit composers the opportunity to grow themselves. This is very nice, but every single Kanno drama theme is also very nice, and they're all basically the same. Switch the melodies around a little but, of course... but if you've heard one you've heard them all.

@BrinkFlip: Unfortunately I didn't buy it. The rest of the score is not worth it for me and not orchestral from what I remember.

I also did a little something on the sideline. I made film score arrangements from all FMP soundtracks, Original, Second Raid and IV. They are not long (IV actually is the most substantial) so listen back to back, I put them together as I would have been in charge of releasing a CD with just the orchestral cues, so that they flow naturally.

FMP - THe Film Scores (https://mega.nz/#!NmZi3QaA!nbi34XYvy-j93VXfmayAJaxQ2q6amXncFvRCmdXByNA)

As a "film score" (so no Funk goodness or Das Boot homages I'm afraid), I am in the camp that think IV holds up the strongest as a standalone score, closely followed by Second Raid. It's the darkest chapter in the series so far were shit hits the fan and people die, and it depends if they make another final season (I imagine they are going to) to pull it back around to uplifting but I really like the dark tone it has compared to the other scores. The action in particular is a do-or-die affair I dig and appears more prominentely but in contrast to mournful and melancholic pieces. The only dealbreaker is of course how you stand on modern scoring tools mixed with the orchestra but for Tactial Espionage Action, I think it fits. The Second Raid is a close tie actually, it's a much more cheerful Sahashi as the Good Guys still win the day and the hero gets the girl and it all ends on an optimistic classical victory. The first one works actually very poor as a film score, no identifable identity and no strong Leitmotif. Though nice Ifukube homage and "Not-the-A-Team" march is a nice touch, especially rewarding since it gets its touching reprise in the third score. It has however one of my favorite cues from the series "Let's Go Home Together" which is a rousing finish (one of his best actually), only rivaled by "Up to now" which I love for the pure glorious 80s moment that is right now my favorite scoring moment of 2018, but on paper Hisaishi's "Boundless Skies" comes first.

These are my honest opinions about the FMP orchestral scores, I can't undo what I think ;)


@Tango:

Attack the arguments/points, not the person ;)


and the Japanese scoring environment simply does not, in general, permit composers the opportunity to grow themselves.

That argument can be easily disputed. Yoshihiro Ike and Joe Hisaishi off the top of my hat.

YK Theme: A bit of truth in that but I still wait for the ultimate version of it. This comes very close for me.

In regards to Masotan for a Debut score its far more substantial than Yugo Kanno's Hataraki Man and Library Wars so I hope for a score of the caliber of Birdy for something SciFi. He has a voice I would like to hear on a substantial score.
Also a little sneak peak for a project I decided to continue:



Taisei Iwasaki
Dragon Pilot Suite



Download (https://mega.nz/#!V7g1gKrZ!mtocWWtjovOLoRpEQHzFGUiKjCv-LBUXX5_HvlLOB3I)



In other news I will rejoice at even the chance of hearing Amano's unreleased Warsaw cues from MAGI, some really stellar action-setpieces that they didn't put on album, those bastards:

https://vgmdb.net/album/78582

That argument can be easily disputed. Yoshihiro Ike and Joe Hisaishi off the top of my hat.

So, once more, I draw your attention to the term "in general" and also to the idea that pointing to one example that contradicts a trend does not invalidate the trend; just as a particularly cold day doesn't mean that global warming isn't happening. I have used this argument at least three times already. I repeat it once more.

I have no further comment to make on the matter.

Good thing I didn't see your post before you edited it, even implying is bad enough. But I have to say you have a special gift in wanting to cut old ties in spectacular fashion, I give you that. And since I have a premonition about things I don't want see repeated in this thread ever again if I press on (and I could), I withdraw from our little fruitless banter as well. But I still had hope to get back the Tango I knew many years ago.

I have no desire to cut old ties; merely to not repeatedly re-tread tired topics.

The "old Tango" went when he realised that the artform he loved was in terminal decline, and that the thread he loved had been stealthily changed from the single refuge from the usual shit of FFShrine, to everything is wonderful, here's a mega-dump of download links, fake news, and people unilaterally deciding when a topic is over on the basis that they're tired of hearing about it.

This thread has its tenth birthday in just a couple of weeks. What a shame that the thread outlasted that which is was created to celebrate.

There was nothing controversial in the original post; I removed it because I'm only interested in arguments that go somewhere.

I don't know what you're saying, this thread has been nothing but you shooting people in the face who are hopeful and optimist about orchestral music in 2018. Nothing but you complaining about every single music release, so bitterly and raining on each other's parade when they happen to enjoy something you don't, or something more than you do. That's all you do, and that's who I think you've become (and others) in this thread. Complete bitterness. Instead of talking music score, all you people do is whine and complain about recent music, never talking about the rare chance of good orchestral music because "it's not good enough" for you, it's not a massive, 120-piece symphonic opera.

It's been ages this thread hasn't been the same and no one has worked to change it or make it better, not to mention every single attempt to talk about music in good way has reversed to the same complaining and bitterness. This thread is not just "recent" orchestral tracks. We could talk about the old goldies. We could talk about just the good, even. But no. The same. Nothing makes you happy anymore, dude.

I get it, I do get it - the absolute state of orchestral music in 2018 is not to the same standards we wished for. IN HOLLYWOOD, and I am very bitter about it - but there's so many other sources for orchestral music, Japan included. I hate what Hollywood does but I try to NOT be complaining about it all the single time. I try to ENJOY the other good music, be it good or new, bask on it. All you do, Tango, is.. just complain, whine. All day long. This sucks, it's not as good as the other, it's the usual blah blah. Seriously. If the thread has gone to shit for you, it's not ONLY our fault, I can assure you.

The moment people start to exaggerate, put words in my mouth that they know don't represent my actual thoughts, and insult my contributions to the thread... well, I'm not at all surprised - that's just another example of how this thread has gone to hell. Ask any of the original founding members of the thread for their opinion - oh, wait, you can't, because they all abandoned ship already.

I have no further comment to make on that matter, either - but thank you for your uncharacteristically restrained post. I didn't hear "elitist" once.

I apologise if this sounds a bit uncouth, but have I missed something? I've been browsing this forum pretty regularly these last few weeks, and this seems to have come out of nowhere. Maybe I've not been paying much attention in certain places, or maybe some of y'all have been chatting off forum, but what's created the mood?

I don't intend to accuse anyone of anything (I don't believe it's fair to do so, and I certainly don't know enough to feel confident in doing so), but I would like to get a better understanding of whatever it is that's happened in the past few days/weeks that's resulted in the above.

If for no other reason than to figure out if I can try to help resolve this tension before it goes somewhere bad. I don't like seeing y'all fight, but I wish I could do something more constructive than just asking everyone to stop getting confrontational with one another. (And I would say this to everyone; I don't like singling out anyone, and I think it's the job of those involved to help to patch things up - even to those who have done no wrong, just to help get things back to some form of peace)

I apologizes if any of this seems unfair or stupid. I don’t mean to, but it's late and I'm pretty tired, so I'm bound to have said something I didn't mean to.

@BrinkFlip: Unfortunately I didn't buy it. The rest of the score is not worth it for me and not orchestral from what I remember.
https://vgmdb.net/album/78582

Ah okay. Doesn't sound like we're missing much then. Thanks.

The moment people start to exaggerate, put words in my mouth that they know don't represent my actual thoughts, and insult my contributions to the thread... well, I'm not at all surprised - that's just another example of how this thread has gone to hell. Ask any of the original founding members of the thread for their opinion - oh, wait, you can't, because they all abandoned ship already. I have no further comment to make on that matter, either - but thank you for your uncharacteristically restrained post. I didn't hear "elitist" once.

Victimist as always, Tango. Never change. Had to say it ONCE. You are the reason I barely post in this thread anymore. I have to hold myself.

FrDougal: This is something that has been simmering for a while, I feel. Tango is in the belief that the orchestral tradition has continued to stagnate, not only in the West, but in the East as well. The rest of thread has taken a more moderate approach, that the West has taken better steps while the East continues to produce great music. This has created a sense of animosity between Tango, the "last" of the Old Guard, with the New Wave in the Thread (Vinphonic to an extent, PonyoBellanote for sure).

Tango has always been the most critical member among us for good and ill. It was only a matter of time before everyone else decided to say "Dude, your attitude stinks".

Doublehex: I've been aware of that for quite some time - hell, one of my earliest posts on this thread was defending Tango's perspective, since I felt it was coming from a passionate desire to have things to be better than they are (something that I still believe he feels, despite how it may seem at times). My confusion comes more from what seems to be an underlying tension. As in, I feel like there's more to it than what's on the surface.

There's always been disagreements on the current state of orchestral music, but this one in particular went fierce fairly quickly, and I can't help but wonder if there's something else going on. And it doesn't have to be something particularly bad; even something like "I was in a bad mood that day when I wrote that post" would at least be enough to contextualise things (personal example: I once wrote a long-winded angry diatribe against the Wonder Woman movie, and a part of that was influenced by a bunch of ridiculous nonsense surrounding the day I went to see it. It may not justify what I said at the time, which I do regret to some degree, but it does at least paint a better picture as to why I was so cross).

Then again, it may be something else entirely, and I'm just speculating over nothing. I apologize if any of this has bothered anyone.

I get annoyed when people talk bullshit, which is pretty often these days. I will make a longer response, and rest assured I will not mince words, but this will do for now.

Thank you, Father, for your thoughts - from my perspective, you haven't bothered me.

I have persevered with this thread - for a decade now; that's just under a third of my total life - and I will continue to do so, on behalf of those who appreciate my comments and my posts and on behalf of the silent faithful who see what a disgrace it is today.

Everything else is largely meaningless.

I'm finally at peace with that. :)

None of us talked "bullshit", specially about you. What you deem "bullshit" is any opinion you disagree with, which is the problem. Seriosly man stop being so overly dramatic.

:roflspock:

I admire your sense of maturity with the matter.

Yeah, this is going nowhere. I wouldn't mind the argument if it was over something worth discussing. But now, it just seems like everyone being angry at the other for old grudges and habits.

Someone has to cave in. Someone has to own up, change for the better, to make this place what it used to be. But that's not me, because it's not my fault and I don't have a complete shit attitude to anyone else's tastes or optimism. So we can sit waiting. Tango won't own up. For him we're all just a bunch of traitors who don't understand he didn't do wrong. I used the thread for what it was worth, talking about orchestral scores, be old or new, sharing what I think is good. I'm still gonna do it, even with this argument going. But right now with Tango continuing to shit on everything Vin says, it's just kinda impossible to add anything. I definitely didn't have the drive.

I do wish people would stop speaking for me.

That truly is the height of bad manners.


But right now with Tango continuing to shit on everything Vin says

My goodness, I have no words.

Oh, wait... I don't need words.

:roflspock:

Good night, ladies, gentlemen, and others. :)

Meh, this is childish at this point, you're right. I'll go back to enjoying my orchestral music and talk about it.

Tango, you have an attitude problem, denying it is pointless. Look, I still want to be your friend, I always enjoy and listen to any of your shares. I could stomach anything if it just wouldn't get so damn personal. But let me do the same in a positive manner. If you really think its all tumbling down why not spent the rest of your life devoting yourself to the classical realm again, share the good stuff, hammer it into peoples heads here why you love it, like you did with your personal and touching share of Mirror of Perfection after which I became a fan of yours. You could have made so many new poeple here fans of your persona and the music you share too, instead of making people uncomfortable because what the hell is someone new who loves or is interested in classical film music think of this?

I actually looked up your old opinions sometimes just two years ago because I care about you, you completely contradict your old persona, not just because "matters got worse". Changing your avatar back to old times is a nice touch but more needs to happen. Go and find yourself like you said if that's what you need, but please overcome this and apologize to nextday proper, personal, because you should not give up a friend that easily. Look, we all want to share music we care about and sometimes have lenghtly discussions in good faith. Those happen regulary with streich (original member btw, so easily forgotten) and many others that enjoy a good company.

I highly treasure how many good scores and composers you brought to my attention and for that I thank you. I don't want to depart in ill-will.


But I must side with Ponyo, your believe that Japanese composers using modern tools is signs of the end is understandable but I don't share it and my ears tell me otherwise. Heck, check out the European film scene if its no longer good for you, good stuff still comes out. Even Asia is not Japan only when it comes to quality film music. In our globalized and connected world we have dozens of places for the kind of music we love.

At least in Japanese media classical music will not die-out. Even if it has no budget, Die Neue These, a prominent example of a modern remake, does not employ any modern tools for the big action scenes, despite clearly stated to be a modern interpretation and that's just one of many examples I could give.

As for my first argument, it was just an example of how to counter instead of "your opinion makes me hate your guts and I'm letting you know of it".
But that statement doesn't hold ground if you just slap "in general" on it either because you can refute any counterargument easily that way. What about Oshima, are you saying Queen Esmeralda is the same as Zetsuen no Tempest? Are you saying Silent Moebius is the same as A Century of Light? Is ChaCha and Wataru the same as Simoun? Is Magic Knight Rayearth the same as Drifters? Is Eureka Seven TV the same as DESTINY? Is Keiichi Oku's Crusher Joe the same as Ashita no Nadja? What about Watanabe, is Dragonar the same as Space Brothers? I could continue this list endlessly. How much until "in general" no longer applies?

It's an argument I considered seriously and then came to the conclusion its easily disputable. I have done so with any of your arguments. Your "no good composer no longer works" is out too for me, no matter the music they are writing. They are all having careers and on average more scoring offers than in previous decades. How many anime has Oshima scored this decade alone? And that list could grow very long.

Other than your distaste for modern tools which are no different from synths in the 80s and 90s, how didnt NGNL Zero (if you watched the film) totally give the music the spotlight and carry many scenes, no matter the quality of the film in other areas. You saw Virgin Soul yourself, you must have heard that Ike was the star of the show. I don't get your distace for Suehiro either, Re:Zero Episode 15 is a goddamn masterpiece with credits rolling in the most classy way possible.

Violet Evergarden, carried by the music like a billion other "Cinematic" TV moments this decade, people from "the old guard", streich and from "the new wave", myself, thought to be good/excellent.

I don't get how you can't enjoy the everlasting fuck out of Gravity Daze 2, Yamato 2202 and Toshihiko Sahashi going full 80s unless you listen and miss the symphonic music of old films and TV shows exclusivly. Japan is the country were musical styles never die, period.





To bring some much needed levity in this, new season is out and Kato Tatsuya's Badminton is scored like a film score with a full ensemble, but its Kato.

And the seasonal ecchi series (drawn by someone oldfags will remember) has a 100% classical score.

Thank you, Vinphonic. I look forward to each of your new findings..

Jesus Christ, what more of an apology can I give Nextday (who doesn't even post here any more) than:


Nextday, I'm sorry. I'd had the shittiest day on this planet yesterday and I 100% took it out on you. You absolutely didn't deserve any of that, and in my heart it wasn't meant for you. I still think you've been argumentative, combative, and aggressive. Not only on this occasion, but on numerous others. But I had absolutely no right to lash out. I was exactly what I called you. I humbly ask your forgiveness.

I'm not going to grovel.

Yes, I'm leaving again. Call me melodramatic, call me more names I don't deserve, don't believe me and think I'll come grovelling back in a few weeks; it makes no difference.

To the good people who are left in the thread; stay in touch. I'll see you around the forum. I'm going to continue my work in the Tango's Treats thread for however long that's sustainable, so if you need me you know where to find me.

To everyone else; you've driven out one of the founding members of this thread two weeks before the tenth birthday celebrations.

Good job, guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi0uX2sZuFg

See you next week. For fuck's sake, you've gone through this many times. Grow up. It's not out fault you complete idiot. OWN UP INSTEAD OF BLAMING OTHERS.

As someone who has lurked this thread for many years (and occasionally posted on an account I can't remember the password/email for) and found it to be the most valuable message board thread that I've ever encountered, I've often felt like saying something but ultimately not wanting to get involved. I guess now the time has come.

Tango, you also said this after nextday (rightly) called you out:

That you chose to quote that, in public, even knowing I'd thought better of it and written a more moderate response, presumably to show me up, speaks volumes.

I was sorry.

Good night, formerly great, now utter hellhole thread in virus-infested shit forum.
Somehow blaming nextday at the same time as apologising to him.

Then this:

Whatever. Granted, you can't see it... but this is the face of a man who is beyond caring.

Then you outright say you're not sorry:

but I do not apologise for reacting to the provocation.

Then there's this:

I personally don't see how this could be "amusing" to any reasonable person; seriously,what reasonable, rounded human laughs at an argument that ends in harsh words, unwarranted insults, and the destruction of a friendship?

Strange, because if I scroll up a bit I think I'll see gifs of Spock laughing.

If that isn't acting...


like a six year-old?

...then what is?

All because of a disagreement about CDs. Good stuff. This is literally the work of a six year-old.

I just think it's sad that it has come to this point. Ponyo is the only one who ever seems to be willing to say what I'm pretty sure everyone else is thinking. If you'd only take notice things might get better instead of the constant bitterness. Who wants to hang out with somebody who is constantly complaining about everything, and then threatens ending the friendship when somebody disagrees and tries to put a positive spin on things? It's like a partner who constantly threatens to leave you when things aren't perfect. Miserable.

Your disdain for Vinphonic's outlook is baffling. So you don't agree? Great, different opinions are great. But rolling out the same crap every time (when you yourself acknowledge the endless cycles of repetition) is mind-numbing and get you nowhere fast.

You clearly have a very difficult time accepting the opinions of others when they differ to yours, and frankly the way you express your own opinions has always been a combination of insight and bitterness. It's not a good look, and sometimes I wonder if you even like listening to music and discussing it anymore.

I'm not sure what to think of your suggestion that it's everybody else that has driven the founding members of the thread out. That's ludicrous. There's this little thing called life, you've probably heard of it. Things change, people move on. That said, if there is any one person who has driven anybody away it's you, Tango. Go back to when you threw your last tantrum and look at the usernames that were posting. How many of them were posting beforehand, and how many afterwards? You've driven others away, and now yourself (again). Have you ever wondered why it's ALWAYS you? Why aren't others holding the thread hostage and threatening to leave? Why does almost every conflict in this thread revolve around you? Do you enjoy it? Because that's how it seems.

I truly appreciate all of your knowledge and everything you've shared in this thread. I dread to think that I might have missed out on such an array of incredible scores over the years that members of this thread have shared, and I think score fans everywhere would be better for having found it. But you have a very large chip on your shoulder and it doesn't suit you.

Here's something to ponder:

"If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole." - Rayland Givens (Justified)

(not that I am not calling you an asshole, but the point still stands.)

Grow up.

(I'M NOT EXACTLY SURE IF I'M OKAY WITH THE WAY I'VE SAID EVERYTHING. THERE ARE THINGS I WANT TO SAY HERE, BUT I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S THE BEST WAY OR TIME TO SAY THEM. IF THIS POST DOES NOTHING TO HELP THE DISCUSSION, I'LL HAVE NO HESITATION IN DELETING IT.)

Oh. So that's happened now. Smeg.

I'll be upfront about this - I hate that this had to happen. I hate anger and confrontations, whether they be face-to-face or on the internet, because I feel that nothing productive happens and it just leads to people drawing lines in the sand for no other reason than they're just furious in the moment. I hate that there has to be a combative mentality that drove this as far as it did, where it was felt that the only choice is to either continue shouting at each other or just get the hell out of dodge. And I hate that tango's leaving on bad terms; even if he does come back, that's still soured things with some of the members on this forum.

(EDIT: None of what I say is intended to apply to anyone in particular, or imply that anyone who disagrred with tango and was calling him out was being mean-spirited. That said, I apologize in advance if you feel that any of the below comes off as such towards you, or anyone else.)

And I should specify the use of "some", because I especially hate the idea being suggested by some that it was a tango-vs-everyone situation. It wasn't, and I detest the idea that everyone thought the exact same thing about tango. You may disagree, and that's cool, but to suggest that kind of nonsense can really isolate somebody. I know tango discussed his personal issues elsewhere, and how he tends to connect to others through music, and I can't help but wonder how difficult it is: to go to a forum you care deeply about, and see nothing but critiques directed your way. You can argue that his attitude and the way he expressed that attitude had gotten too negative and tiring, and I can understand that on some level, but that should never, NEVER justify taking things this far. I'm all for calling someone out when I feel they've done wrong, but I feel like this isn't the right way to go about it.

Yes, I'm trying to defend tango, and I won't blame anyone who disagrees with everything I've said in relation to this particular mess, but I can't help but do that. I hate being mad at one specific person, since I don't know enough about their set of circumstances to feel confident in having an opinion - and having a negative preconception often leads to viewing every single thing that person does in the worst possible light, even when it's not.

I don't like the idea of having to defend someone, since I can also see what other folks are on about. I get that it must be exhausting to feel like you're not getting through to someone, especially if you mean well and just want them to be a bit more positive about things. I guess this is one of those situations where I can't really make up my mind on how to feel, and the best thing I feel I can do is to try and speak up for the side that I feel is getting lost in all this mess. You can disagree with that by all means, and maybe you're right to, but that's just a thing I do.

I just hate seeing y'all be mad at each other, when this community's always been pretty good at driving legitimate discussion, and doing so in a polite manner. It's been about two years since I started frequenting this thread, and I've come to consider everyone here as something of an extended family, as weird as that is to say - people I'm always interested in keeping tabs on, people I'm always ready and willing to hear out (even when it's about something I have no interest in), people who've inspired me to do something with myself (this thread is part of the reason I decided to take a music course; to get better at composing and understanding music). On days when I don't feel great, this is one of the places I come to, just to see how everyone's doing. Even if there's nothing at all, just reading back on old posts is enough to bring a smile to my face and keep me thinking.

And I consider this of everyone, including tango. I don't want anyone to leave (unless they absolutely have to, of course), and I especially don't want them to leave on bad terms. But I guess that's happened now.

Sorry, I don't know what else to say.

...

Actually, I do have one more thing.

Tango, I want to address this last bit to you, if that's alright.

Firstly, I apologize if any of the things I said, which are applied towards you to varying degrees, are inaccurate or disparaging. I don't want to make things any worse than they already are, and I'll happily delete this post if it does.

Secondly, I'm sad to see you go. You're one of the people I come here to specifically read about; even if I disagree with what you say at times, I enjoy reading and considering your points. But if it's something that you feel you have to do, I won't blame you for it.

Finally, I hope you take care of yourself. If you've not been enjoying this thread for however long at this point, and the only debates you get involved in go south, then it's best to leave. I'm not saying this as a criticism, but as advice - if the only things you're getting out of a particular area are only making you feel worse, then get the hell out of there and do whatever you can to make yourself feel better until you're able to go on. Even if that means you not coming here again, that's okay. Just do what you can, and have a happy, meaningful life.

Are you nuts, of course I suscribe and wish the same for Tango, as I would anyone here because I'm a fucking human being. What I for the life of me don't understand is how Tango can be the first to write "written words hurt" and then fail at his own advice spectaculary. For reference there was one instance were things went south here between me and another member. But you know what happened, he wrote me a PM with a heartfelt apology that things got heated and asked if we can fix things and have fun in the thread again in a genuine, heartfelt attempt. Hint, he posts now even to this day. That's what should have happened and it drove me nuts because, whether Tango knew or not I converse with nextday in private so that makes things double frustrating. A tenth anniversary ain't worth much if the frequent posters didn't fix things between them anyway.

In case you are still reading this Tango, please understand we don't hate your guts. We genuinely care for you, and I want us all to get along and stay friends, you big goddamn idiot. We want you to be happy, to inspire, to talk and share great music as you once did not driving even a fanboy of yours (in hindsight) away.

You can either choose never to return and not stay in contact anymore, that's up to you, that's fine, with the best wishes and a happy life. I just think its the easy way. The hard way is to man up and get in contact with nextday and fix this goddamn mess you made on the double. It's why I am at my boiling point. I'm not as quick and resolute as nextday, I still believe in the great things you have inside you and that we CAN all get along (optimist to the last) so I hope you will show us we were all wrong and perhaps inspire another one like myself to realize, holy shit the world needs to hear this music. My Legacy project could not have happend in parts without you and you have my eternal thanks. I'll have you despite everything, in good memory if you decide to move on.

I'm not going to defend Tango, he's a big boy who can speak for himself.

But, one thing I must remind everyone is that getting rid of him or any other members in this thread won't prevent your favorite musicians from being criticized. If you just want to share music, then there are hundreds of other threads here on this site for that. This thread is more than that- it's narrowing down the cream of the crop, of what we find to be the best or most interesting currently when it comes to orchestral scores. Whether people want to acknowledge it or not, there is a bar that has to be set. And unfortunately, if you bring up some mediocre score filled with slamming drums and ostinato and get pissy when others diss or ignore it, you've got no one but yourself to blame for being mad, especially if you stay quiet about it. There are thousands of other chat sites and forums that you could join where people adore that kind of music. But not here.

The key to being on a forum like this is knowing how to handle and respond to criticism (and in some cases, criticisms of your criticism). Of course, we've probably scared off a lot of newbies, the obvious reason being they don't want to see their favorite musicians being bashed. And that's a perfectly legitimate reason to not post. But those who do decide to join should know how to handle the times when what they like is not liked by everyone else. And for the most part, it seems almost all of the active participants here are capable of that.

Likewise Tango, you shouldn't take others' opinions to heart. Why do you do this? Every time someone disagrees with you, you see them as attacking your character. It's an unhealthy mindset to have and will eat you alive, even outside these forums. I hope that whatever pursuits you go after, you learn how to separate yourself from your opinions.

Vinphonic: I genuinely apologize if what I wrote suggested that you, or anyone who disagreed with tango or calling him out, were being unnecessarily mean-spirited. That wasn't at all what I intended to say, and I'd never want to call anyone out as such unless I felt it was absolutely justified (which it isn't). I'll try to add an addendum to clarify what I meant to say, because I feel I already wrote too much today and don't want to spend more time rewriting everything, but I'm sorry for causing offence. I also want to extend that apology to anyone else who similarly took offence; I feel kinda dumb for apologizing to just tango in advance and nobody else in hindsight.

Absolutely none taken, it wasn't addressed at you, I apologize. Your way too humble, so much that I feel ashamed at even implying I'm worked up about something you wrote :) If only more people could take after you. I'm just really worked up because it was months of frustration finally boiling up. But go and fix your fucking friendships, nothing besides some really fucked-up crime-related things can end a relationship forever, especially if it is years old. You drank a little too much and didn't mean it but you're terribly sorry in the thread and per PM was all it would have taken at the time. Now you have to put a little more effort, since now you know how things stand (I suspected). I want it all fixed and everybody to get along, in agreement AND disagreement, but I'm powerless and thats frustrating beyond belief. Good thing I was smart enough to do my anniversary a couple of months ago in the spirit of what this thread should be about, But it hurts like hell that I had to talk to people individualy for my three part last Legacy finale and not work with everyone together, that's when I realized its ruined. I was this close on the edge to let it all loose but I let it in in hope the matter would resolve itself after it. It didn't and I would have made another scene if I was none the wiser. But it still sort of happened, so fuck me for underestimating the situation.

"The Big Orchestral Action Music Thread" is so big…

i HIGHLY recommend richard harveys spotify.dozens of orchestral album with production music on the level of spongebob but no comedy.just listen to fantasia reach for the stars which might be my favorite track of the year.

The Zipper, can you tell me why are you making it out like we're the problem and it's just that we can't stand Tango's opinions? Because I can assure you, it's not that. We don't try to change him, or we don't want to. We know his opinions won't change. And it doesn't matter! It's NOT about that, it's just the way he adresses them. The way he rains on everyone's parades. He provides criticism, which is nice, but only to let someone know the thing they like is not good, at all. And he writes it in a extreme "superior" way.. it's got NOTHING to do with us not standing his opinions, or yours. And I think you two thinking that it's EXTREMELY SELFISH. Like you only care about yourselves to the point you think it's ONLY that we can't stand what we like being shitted on. NO. It's more than that.

EDIT: God I fucking miss nextday. All the good contributors have left because of your fucking grim, disgusting bitter attitude. And you still have the guts to say you didn't do shit.

First of all, when did this become "We vs Tango"? Who the hell is "We"? Speak for yourself man.

Like I said, I'm not defending Tango's attitude, and I even addressed that part at the end. But I believe he and everyone else in this thread has the right to criticize whatever the hell they want, no matter whose feelings get hurt. John Powell still sucks. Michael Giacchino still sucks. Hiroyuki Sawano still sucks. I could go on forever like this, with elaborate explanations, and so could many many others in this thread. If that's what you don't want to see, too bad. That attitude isn't going anywhere, even without Tango.

Tango's fight with Nextday and Vinphonic isn't because of his musical opinions, but because he got mad at the others and basically insulted the hell out of them before backtracking and deleting what he wrote, albeit too late. That's terrible, and a whole other issue entirely. But musical tastes? You'll just have to suck it up, or say something about it if you don't agree. But don't expect the rest of us to shut up. It's called "discussion"- what forums are made for.

I'm not the only one who's voiced what they have against Tango and they've done so right after I dared to, in the first place. This is indeed a Tango thing. Because no matter how you look at it, he's the exact reason why this thread is not the same anymore, no matter how much he denied. Complaining we ruined the thread, but he himself did it, he wrecked what the founded with much love. Because he had lost the love himself, and all he did now was just rant, bicker at everyone instead of talking about the joys of film music as it should be. Part of me even thinks he deep inside loathed that others enjoyed some little bit of new music and get excited for it, something he probably couldn't do anymore.

Once again, Zipper, the issue is not about opinions, or some of us not liking them. Can't say I'm not strongly opinionated too, with some of mine! And very passionate with them. Thick as hell. But again, we don't care about what others thing or never want to change their mind. What we don't like is WE talking about a score we happen to like, and someone else coming on us being like MEEEEEH THAT ONE'S ABSOLUTE SHIT AND YOU'RE ABSOLUTE SHIT FOR LIKING IT OR FINDING ANYTHING GOOD IN IT. Obviously it's a exageration for the example, but I'm hoping you get it. IT'S NOT about not standing opinions, it's about HIS behaviour with them, and the people here. He let his extreme sorrow and pain for what he thinks is "a lack of good music these days" make him bitter and a dick to everyone here. Again, I think you're incredibly egotistic if you think that's the real issue here or making it about it. It's not. And I'll repeat it all the times I have to. THIS IS NOT ABOUT OPINIONS. THIS IS ABOUT THE ATTITUDE IN GENERAL. WETHER IT'S ABOUT THE OPINIONS OR WITH PEOPLE.

Just like you and everyone else, I want this to end and go back to what the thread used to be, but.. what's the use, it's dead. The souls of the thread who bothered to make this lively have gone. And I'm not talking about Tango, he doesn't make a difference anymore unless he changes. It'll be just another thread..

---------- Post added at 05:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 PM ----------

I haven't been checking new scores out lately as I have ran out of space to download new stuff.

Prayer - Toshiyuki Watanabe


Don't know if this has been posted here, but I couldn't find it when searching the thread.

Some nice pieces in there.

https://dbr.ee/UkJA

(source: https://www.jpopdl.biz/toshiyuki-watanabe-prayer.html)


Boys Over Flowers Season 2 - Takashi Ohmama, Yoshihisa Hirano


Not as good as Yamashita's, unsurprisingly, and probably not to the tastes of some here, but I think a few cues here and there are worth a listen (aside from those by the composers other than Ohmama and Hirano)

https://mega.nz/#F!qfBwQSSA!aH688NGA_ZWUNAQK0bnM5g

(source: https://doramamusic.com/en/doramas/852-boys-over-flowers-season-2)

Has anyone hear the new Iwasaki score for Lord of Vermilion yet? I tried buying it, but couldn't get through, issues with my card. Based on the samples, it sounds like it features some of his best electronic work in an somewhat disappointing and bland whole. Based on the samples, I will probably like this one a bit more than Black Cat, High School (the movie) and Dead Apple at least which is a small step in the right direction. It won't be anything for those expecting orchestral glory.

Well I'm not leaving, at least I will try some ways to fix this mess and see who stays first and wil be around for the time being, I'm luckily aware of manny people here who want to continue being a community, BUT the bannhammer solves nothing. That's not what I want, banning is not right. I get it, Ponyo was a bit too harsh but Tango did nothing bannworthy either, only things to apologize for. It's the problem, talk to each other and fix it goddamnit, the ban only makes matters worse.

@BrinkFlip: Thank you for the full album. Watanabe also did a collaboration with Sarah Alainn and its a nice little pop ballad:

http://picosong.com/w9TWN/

Well I'm not leaving just now, at least I will try some ways to fix this mess and see who stays first and wil be around for the time being, I'm luckily aware of manny people here who want to continue being a community, BUT the bannhammer solves nothing. That's not what I want, banning is not right. I get it, Ponyo was a bit too harsh but Tango did nothing bannworthy either, only things to apologize for. It's the problem, talk to each other and fix it goddamnit, the ban only makes matters worse.
I'm of a different opinion, thus, I "forced" both of them to get some time off the Shrine. Tango may have apologized, it's cool he did, still, this wasn't the first time he somewhat crossed the line and edited crap out of his posts+apologized later, how about he doesn't do such stuff in the first place?

Neither ban is permanent, at any rate, if they want, they'll come back once time runs out. This is my final say on this matter, I won't discuss this any further, especially with those not "affected" by the ban.

Has anyone hear the new Iwasaki score for Lord of Vermilion yet? I tried buying it, but couldn't get through, issues with my card. Based on the samples, it sounds like it features some of his best electronic work in an somewhat disappointing and bland whole. Based on the samples, I will probably like this one a bit more than Black Cat, High School (the movie) and Dead Apple at least which is a small step in the right direction. It won't be anything for those expecting orchestral glory.LoV is an arcade game series, and most of the music only lasts 30 seconds to a minute before it loops. Most of the samples on iTunes contain the entire piece before it loops. Based on the previous games in the series I expected no orchestra whatsoever, so the presence of live strings is a surprise. Highly suspect this was recorded around the same time as Dead Apple. But I prefer this over that simply due to the lack of slamming RC percussion loops.

Really digging this piece though, a neat modern take on the 8-bit sound of old-school arcade games. Would have been interesting if he wrote the entire score in this style, rather than his usual Lotus Juice and Yuri Kasahara karaoke sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZaSqvPKjPs

Speaking of Iwasaki and video games, how about his first ever commercial orchestral outing (albeit in MIDI) released in 1995:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95eXX0XOSYg

Boys Over Flowers Season 2 - Takashi Ohmama, Yoshihisa Hirano


Not as good as Yamashita's, unsurprisingly, and probably not to the tastes of some here, but I think a few cues here and there are worth a listen (aside from those by the composers other than Ohmama and Hirano)

https://mega.nz/#F!qfBwQSSA!aH688NGA_ZWUNAQK0bnM5g

(source: https://doramamusic.com/en/doramas/852-boys-over-flowers-season-2)

I really love that overture it sounds so grand. I like a lot of the rest (I don't get into love or slice of life soundtracks) but nothing really comes at you like that overture.
Do you have Vol.2?

Apologies Leon, again I was not rational the last few days. It's probably for the best as you say. I'm over it for the time being and will stay. There's too much people who don't want me gone and that's a great feeling. I apologize again for initiating a sad display from all sites, especially to newcomers but I hope this one was final (and it was time to boil in a sense).

I will be here in this thread for the time being, until either matters resolve themselves, the place is back to normal without it, or its time to give a salute and start a new one. I would really love the idea of a place continuing to exist were all new good/great orchestral scores from all over the world can be shared and people can express their joy of music that would otherwise never grace their ears and make their day. I gotta tell you, Japan is occupying me enough as is and even then, as nextday showed me recently, there's still countless hidden gems from all the decades waiting to be discovered and shared, so I kinda got less eyes for Europe at the moment. But hater and friends can bring that to your attention.

A lot of good things happened lately, orchestral-wise from my favorite scoring place so I will be addressing it some time in the future. I will be however (or at least try to be ) a little more self-critical about things I love/like than I usually are but only when its in good spirit.

And since some of you asked, it doesn't matter if you're a musician, composer, engineer or a listener, years in love or just beginning to take interest. Actually the listeners perspective is a very important one. You don't need to write an essay, just leave a few words how you feel about the music shared here or otherwise.

Of course I always welcome a discussion, preferably about favorite composers and/or scores in the realm of FrDougal's questions or MastaMists scoring moments. Everyone is free to agree/disagree and I hope for the possibility to exchange ideas/viewpoints in good spirit as well.

FrDougal, apologies again, your words are the definition of kindness and don't be afraid to speak your mind, all opinions/viewpoints are welcome, nobody bites here. Keep your questions coming, I enjoy answering them and discuss it.
If streich, Sirusjr and other old friends who I'm aware are still here, it will be alright.

Zipper and Ponyo, I haven't forgotten your request either.

If other things that need fixing, fix themselves, all the better.

Sort of my manifesto,
old and new faces, carry on.


In a more lighthearted manner, here's Hirano's contributions from both volumes (I only have Hirano): Yoshihisa Hirano - Boys Over Flowers Overture (Full) (https://mega.nz/#!F2ww1S6C!PotrExfF7yHRVtDt_p4aY9d-xBahFnRZmlZaSx6klSY)

I haven't been here as long as most of you... which is why I would say that I'm quite intimidated by this thread (and I am a composer). You all are very knowledgeable of this sort of music, but at times when I read Tango or see the arguments against him (which is quite frequently), I think to myself "Why can't anyone just accept that music is subjective?". Why can't people accept that others just like what they like and why spend pointless pages arguing it? Hell I hate Hans Zimmer (for the most part), but every now and then I actually like his music. I know Yoko Kanno rips off other composers, but doesn't everybody? Her music still tickles my ears and sates a need in my heart when I listen to it.

I find absolutely no reason to come in here and argue what I like because no matter what, at the end of the day, I'm still going to like enjoy what I listen to. I find the whole mess a deterrent for what this thread stood for. I don't think it set out to be a group of people who just say everything that comes out is shite (maybe I'm wrong?). I am not one to pick a side here, but we all know certain attitudes here have been increasingly contagious and infectious.

I don't lose sleep over what is said to me in here. I actually forget it when I turn my computer off for the day.

With all that being said, I appreciate ALL of you. I have grown as a composer because of ALL of you. I have learned more about music in film and anime because of this thread. I never would have known who Toshihiko Sahashi is or any composer outside of Hisaishi and Kanno. You all taught me that. I hope we can move past the petty arguments and just remember that we have a legacy to uphold and community to keep together.

I really love that overture it sounds so grand. I like a lot of the rest (I don't get into love or slice of life soundtracks) but nothing really comes at you like that overture.
Do you have Vol.2?

Vol.2 - https://dbr.ee/7B7S

found here: https://animemusicsoundtrack1.blogspot.com/2018/06/boys-over-flowers-season-2-vol2.html

Much weaker than the Vol.1. I think that Vinphonic's post probably covers the best parts of this one (though I actually like Ohmama's cues most in Vol.1), and Ohmama's contribution is merely okay. The rest is awful. Really bad.

FrDougal, apologies again, your words are the definition of kindness and don't be afraid to speak your mind, all opinions/viewpoints are welcome, nobody bites here.

Although I don't think you needed to apologize, I appreciate that you felt you should and thank you for doing so all the same. I have no problem with speaking my mind, but I like to always try and be careful of the fact that I could screw something up; be it in what I'm saying or how I'm saying it. No, it may not be necessary and it might cause me more stress in the moment than to just be flippant, but I'd rather be cautious about saying something good than not worrying about saying something bad.


... I think to myself "Why can't anyone just accept that music is subjective?"

I think it's because that music is so subjective (I personally consider it to be the most subjective thing in existence) that it can very difficult to remove yourself from your own perspective and realize that others don't perceive music in the same way as you do. As a personal example, I have a form of synesthesia (a condition where experiencing a feeling with one sense is combined with a feeling from another sense) where I picture a certain colour when listening to a particular key of music. For example, songs in C Major make me think of the colour blue, and all the various optimistic feelings I associate with that colour.

And this is where a disagreement can come up on even the most basic level, because while I might consider this arrangement of Danny Boy by Chris Hazell to be calm and uplifting (https://youtu.be/i5ia5EYoHEc), someone else can just as easily consider it bittersweet or depressing. When there can be such a difference of interpretation based on just the listener's perception of whatever key the song is written in, it's not at all surprising how much people can disagree with each other on all kinds of other things in the world of music. It's not malicious, but more a difficulty with understanding the perspectives of others, especially when they can share very little with your own (speaking as someone with a form of high-functioning Autism, this is something I spent my teenage years trying to figure out; and it can still be difficult).

I think people can come to understand why they disagree so vehemently; it just takes time and communication for them to find that out. And for lack of a better point to end this post on, do you have any examples of your music to listen to? I'm rather curious to hear them.

"Why can't anyone just accept that music is subjective?"Sorry, but no. Your preferences are what are subjective. Music itself can be assessed on a technical level, much like good writing. We can see through if someone is attempting to write a melody, if they have good control of harmonic flow, if they can use certain chord progressions without it becoming predictable or repetitive- you should be aware of all these since you are a composer.

I'm not going to say anything about Kanno because it's beating another dead horse. For some people, I suppose ignorance is bliss.

Sorry, but no. Your preferences are what are subjective.

Agreed.

Music isn't anymore "subjective" than spoken language is.

It's personal bias born of one's own experiences and learning which shapes your valuation of the world around you and the things in it.

My main point is peace and love ;).

---------- Post added at 11:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:48 PM ----------


And for lack of a better point to end this post on, do you have any examples of your music to listen to? I'm rather curious to hear them.

I do! I mostly do arrangements of game music (but with 100% live performance) but every now and then I get commissioned by an organization to write some concert music. Here are two excerpts of my original works...

Windy Mountain for String Orchestra - https://soundcloud.com/josh-barron/op-i-windy-mountain-preview?in=josh-barron/sets/professional-reel
The Endless Sea for Full Orchestra (Rehearsal clip) - https://soundcloud.com/josh-barron/endless-sea-for-full-orchestra-preview

Windy Mountain is about 20 minutes in length in its completed format and Endless is is about 26-28 minutes depending on tempos of the conductor. I love writing concert music :). If you wish to find my arrangement work you can search for Josh Barron on Spotify or here: https://joshbarronstudios.bandcamp.com/

Hope you enjoy!

Damn Josh, that's really good stuff, hard to believe it was this far in the past when we talked about your string projects and now your soaring.
I hope you can work with a full symphony orchestra someday, either on a game arrangement album or on something original. We deserve it :)

Related to game music, Kentaro Sato plans for Link to the Past, STAR FOX, Fire Emblem, Mother, Castlevenia IV and others as the first kickstarter project to have a symphonic album, you can vote on vgmdb if you want.



Well and this also makes me a little less sad, he's finally back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1HU4aalLU

:D

This sounds closer to Sagisu though, its basically an orchestral piece from Evangelion performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic. So I imagine Amano will be orchestrating for many cues.

BUT I imagine we will get many of Amano's original pieces if they decide to go into the direction the pv suggests.

But man, a season with Oshima, Sagisu/Amano and Wada, what is this? the 90s??? :D :D :D

Technically Wada already had his big orchestral score with Puzzle & Dragon and should Tanaka appear, he already has his big orchestral score with Planet With, so everything else would be a bonus.
All this with the chance of the unreleased orchestral cues from Magi and god knows what else on Sagisu's four disc-set...

Good times...

And in case you missed it:

http://picosong.com/w9pWi/

"How did I score Planet With?
Mecha needs to be Big Orchestra and kickass. Mostly kickass.
Anime and Games seem to be the biggest global method of cultural exchange Japan has to offer, between countries and generations, so I will give it my all."

-Kohei Tanaka, the King of Mecha


EDIT

Takaki has a small but complete studio orchestra for Noble Musketeers and I dig the music: http://picosong.com/w9iSm/

Suehiro's Cells at work is a mix between his Detective and ReZero, also nice Tchaikovsky: http://picosong.com/w9MEa/

Shichisei no Subaru has some nice orchestral pieces. No composer credit so far but its a good-sized studio orchestra: http://picosong.com/w9MKm/


And I still can not get over that an ecchi series has a classical score with a budget...



This is why I love Japan :D (https://vimeo.com/278801617)




P.S. You should also buy KADO, it's one of Iwashiro's absolute best works in my opinion, easily in my top three, and its profoundly beautiful in parts: http://picosong.com/w9imF/
Some add. info by nextday, its co-orchestrated by Yannick Paget, a french classical composer and conductor who lives now in Tokyo: https://soundcloud.com/yannick-paget/salve-regina

Vol.2 - https://dbr.ee/7B7S

found here: https://animemusicsoundtrack1.blogspot.com/2018/06/boys-over-flowers-season-2-vol2.html

Much weaker than the Vol.1. I think that Vinphonic's post probably covers the best parts of this one (though I actually like Ohmama's cues most in Vol.1), and Ohmama's contribution is merely okay. The rest is awful. Really bad.

Thank you! Anchor doing these Volume 2's digitally annoys me.

Lord Of Vermilion IV (String sections only)
Taku Iwasaki


(https://mega.nz/#!gUo0CA6K!EnpQSRH1mVT_ZtTSjzEFa4DCPDzRZpFWZHrXg_QQ0Ho)

Thanks pensquawk. :)

The first piece started off with a promising melody, but a minute in, Iwasaki just had to reaffirm his identity with that dreaded drop.

Overall, as expected, nothing really noteworthy on the orchestral side, if you could even call it that. Some parts sounded dangerously close to Masaru Yokoyama for my liking, and the rest isn't anything we haven't heard before from Iwasaki. It didn't even sound like a full string ensemble, just a mere violin quartet. His efforts clearly went towards the electronics and vocalists, which was the main draw of the LoV games to begin with.

Expecting better things from Jean D'Arc and that Chinese movie. Iwasaki is already grumpy about the former, so that's a good sign.

https://twitter.com/taque68/status/1010476921958748160


Possibly Iwasaki related, since it involves the entire staff of Gurren Lagann:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-07-06/trigger-reveals-more-details-on-promare-anime/.133947

Then again, the last composers who worked with this team were Sawano and Suehiro, so Iwasaki probably doesn't have any more of a chance of showing than they do. Place your bets.

Damn Josh, that's really good stuff, hard to believe it was this far in the past when we talked about your string projects and now your soaring.
I hope you can work with a full symphony orchestra someday, either on a game arrangement album or on something original. We deserve it :)[/url]

Thank you so much Vinphonic! It means a lot coming from you! I am actually doing some cool stuff at the moment, but unfortunately can't say much on it. I am doing a well known piece from an RPG classic for full orchestra and choir. It is vague, I know, but it will be the largest ensemble I have written and recorded for.

I am also trying to get together some of my fellow arrangers to help me make a Final Fantasy Tactics orchestra album. That score deserves a proper live recording. That and Vagrant Story ;).

Could this be re-shared please :)


Well, better late than never...! This is for Akashi San, although I really hope there's something in here for everybody...! Ladies and gentlemen, a bit more from Richard Rodney Bennett.


RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT
Symphony No. 3
Violin Concerto
Diversions for Orchestra



Orchestre Philharmonique De Monte-Carlo
Vadim Gluzman, violin
conducted by
James DePreist

https://mega.co.nz/#!F55k2RBA!-xeclF4iiciPKGZPIczd4fBF3aKyQ--om1i-HTWRVuE

This is a severely fascinating album. It consists of three pieces each with a very distinct voice, and each from a particular stage in Bennett's compositional development.

The newest piece on the album, Diversions, is twenty minutes of pure joy. By 1990, Bennett's classical style and film style had completed the merging that they began in the early eighties. Therefore, the music on display here is tuneful, tonal, exuberant, and approachable. From the outset, the Irish-themed melody appears like the composer's thumbprint, recalling his many film scores - particularly Far From The Madding Crowd, which is for many people, his masterpiece.

Symphony No. 3 was written in 1987, and is a little bit harder to digest. The music feels like Bennett's internal working-out process of how "tonal" he should be in his serious music. It's not quite as overt as, say, Diversions or his 1995 Partita, but it's well on its way and remains deeply enjoyable, and quite approachable for the slightly adventurous. There are passages of pure lyrical beauty, and passages of pretty harsh dissonance... and there are also many passages that, again, conjure up his film scores. Check out the piano work in the first movement.

The Violin Concerto of 1975 is brutal, angular, vicious, dissonant, and for the most part, fairly unsettling. You won't be whistling this one on the way to work! It certainly packs a punch! The fast movement goes hell-for-leather into pandemonium, whilst the slow movement is grotesquely beautiful. This music will get inside you. You'll listen the first time and think "Jesus, what the hell is this?!" but listen again, and again, and again... you will literally feel your brain making new connections and it will sound different. It's quite a fascinating process to go through.

The orchestra (a strange choice if ever I saw one) play wonderfully, Vadim Gluzman is silky and sensitive in the Violin Concerto, and the sound quality is excellent (engineered by the legendary Michael Fine). The late conductor James DePreist (sadly, he passed away last year at the age of 76, following a heart attack) is very attuned to the needs of the music and to Bennett's sound in particular. In all, it's a rather splendid disc, which I gather is a bit rare there days... so enjoy!

James DePreist RIP - 1936 - 2013



The only Western conductor to ever appear in a Japanese anime? (Nodame Cantabile)

TT

Well that was quick and painless, Planet With, Thousand Noble Musketeers and Cells at Work already have soundtrack releases. Planet With is two CDs, both out in september, CaW out in August. Still desperately hoping for Puzzle X Dragon.

I'm also anticipating Oku's Inn and Umitaru Abe's Penguin Highway in August, a track "The Empire Strikes Back" is on there, I'm curious...
It's Sound Inn but you never know these days...

Otherwise, lots of pleasant music this season, from string quartet to smooth Jazz, Ruka Kawada being sugarly cute and playful as always, might be a thing or two on some soundtracks thats worth it... and to my pleasant surprise Kato and Yokoyama are really putting in some effort. Only a couple of shows left but Planet With alone would be enough for me. There might still be a surprise waiting though.

EDIT: Forgot Satsuriku no Tenshi, I believe Hideki Sakamoto scored this one. Good string writing (no surprise there).

Apolgies for an error from my side, the classical score this season is infact not for an "ecchi" series, as I had falsy assumed, but full-blown hentai, which makes it actually even more amazing. I thankfully posted the censored version unintentionally, the "full" version has additional pieces and good lord, what a crescendo... ... ... XD

I would laugh my ass off if that is Taku Matsushiba's hall recording. Of course if it is original and not a classical recording that escapes me atm but I hear the Japanese orchestra sound so I guess not.

I'm afraid I can't share it, both audio and visual ;)

But still, was about time, Overfiend and Blue Wolves were too long ago. Granted its not Warsaw nor Amano but still, the effort is commendable, I would actually rofl if they scored this to picture/storyboards. Don't know if this will get a soundtrack, I really doubt it, but someone really cared for this piece of trash.




Other news:

More Joe Hisaishi: Not only NNK2 and the greatly anticipated In this Corner of the World, but also there's an upcoming interpretation of Beethoven's Symphony 7&8 AND a new Symphonic Album of Laputa, co-orchestrated by Chad Cannon, performed by the New Japan Philharmonic.

Kenichiro Suehiro also scores Goblin Slayer (don't worry, the PVs were done by someone different). ReZero Part 2?

Unfortunately, Code Vein was delayed to 2019, would have loved me some classical Go Shiina.


@stevomufc1: strange, I don't have that particular recording. I must have lost it during my harddrive failure :(
Maybe if good fortune smiles on us and everythings all sunshine and rainbows again in a few weeks, someone might share it...

Looked like Captain Marvel is done by Pinar Toprak, one of Zimmer’s people

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/heat-vision/captain-marvel-pinar-toprak-be-first-woman-score-an-mcu-movie-1120428

Part 2 of one of my favorite scores of 2018, and the year is packed with good stuff already.
What a series... and its not even the third act. So many wonderful things about it I could elaborate on (and other shows like it) but we are here for the music. And it is simply wonderful if you love oldschool telvision. And once the big action starts its quite Sahashi-esque but thats because they draw from the same source of inspiration. So without further ado.





Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Score Moments (Part 2) (https://vimeo.com/279871715)

The first 15 seconds are a preview of the third act. Hopefully its out this year.
The second (and third) soundtrack is long overdue. I hope they do a combined release. You will not hear this kind of wonderful type of timeless brassy TV music anywhere else on the planet and if there's a place were they score shows like the 60s/70s/80s and the shows also have the same spirit, let me know.


We do now not only live in a world where Japan is finally weird as hell (again) as of this season (and thats how it should be.. that and good music) but also anime/media companies FINALLY just distribute their episodes on youtube (like Planet With) with an add for the Blu-Ray, in addition to putting the soundtrack on itunes as soon as it it finished airing, as if they are finally learning how to do business in the global world.

Here's another example, the Yokoyama score this season I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1Tc7N2L9Y&t=1m09s (Kid Icarus vibes but probably intentional). No soundtrack yet but not a necessity for me.

Revue Starlight (also on youtube) would be on my want list if Tanaka didn't spoil me completely what Japanese anime musicals/stageplays etc. should sound like. I miss the brass, it ain't a show without it. But maybe it will appear later on, I hear it here and there. The series also got some sense of panache and is shockingly full of quality. One of the sample songs was an operatic song in the style of NGNL Zero so I will definitely check out the soundtrack in october: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UujROw2SiDk&t=17m30s

Samples of Penguin Highway are also on youtube for those who are curious, sounds promising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437br5hNfrQ&t=18s

The only disappointment for me is Space Bug, not because of the music, it's pure (generic) Hollywood SciFi of the good-old days but it has unfortunately no budget for live-players. That orchestra session Nobuko Toda talked about must have been for something else. Oh well, won't be the last score of the new "FILM SCORE" unit and hearing this sound among all the other pleasant music makes up for it.



EDIT: And to make it perfect, another promising newcomer, Kota Yokoseki, just 25 years old, brass band player and freshly graduated from Senzoku Gakuen. Soundtrack out in september, albeit enclosure. I doubt it will turn up which would be a shame. Ladies and Gentlemen, as if this season couldn't get any weirder (better), here's the Battle of Gaugamela in a Japanese Anime: Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria (http://picosong.com/wf4Q5/)

So I am surprised no one here has mentioned the music to Octopath Traveler. It is actually a really nice soundtrack with live musicians and delightfully crafted melodies from Yasunori Nishiki, a relatively new composer who has done work for Uematsu on Granblue Fantasy. I would say if anyone is worthy of the title of successor to the legendary Uematsu, then Nishiki would be a good bet. Just listening to Olberic's Theme brings me back to the glory days of FF6 and Sakimoto's Tactics. I don't recall a better JRPG score recently that is this enjoyable.

Here are some of my favorites for you to listen if you wish:

Olberic's Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfoTrvxxGpE&list=PL-TSN1JqlGvonhE0XW-4lMt6_mbswoh3f&index=5
The Flatlands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ_-P4g4QWU&index=11&list=PL-TSN1JqlGvonhE0XW-4lMt6_mbswoh3f
The Highlands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsdsEDRxp9I&list=PL-TSN1JqlGvonhE0XW-4lMt6_mbswoh3f&index=13
The Woodlands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDc3YUwChZc&index=17&list=PL-TSN1JqlGvonhE0XW-4lMt6_mbswoh3f
Town of Cobbleston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXgLnRqJqik&index=24&list=PL-TSN1JqlGvonhE0XW-4lMt6_mbswoh3f
Dark Caverns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsvmZvkFRk&index=26&list=PL-TSN1JqlGvonhE0XW-4lMt6_mbswoh3f
Decisive Battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOdesgysxek&list=PL-TSN1JqlGvonhE0XW-4lMt6_mbswoh3f&index=40
Final Battle I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW8e_F66Ym8&list=PL-TSN1JqlGvonhE0XW-4lMt6_mbswoh3f&index=60

Sorry to interrupt the prompt to talk about Octopath Traveler's music, but there's a question I've been meaning to ask for the last few days: what does "RC" mean, in relation to modern film music? It's been about two years since I first started frequenting this thread, and I still have no idea what that term means, even though I've seen it being tossed around a fair bit. If anyone could answer that for me, I'd really appreciate that. Otherwise, carry on with Octopath Traveler.

@Josh: Someone might actually work on a loopless version like I did for Gravity Daze ;) http://picosong.com/wf4aS/
I really love the credits and will give it a proper summary once I'm done with my edit.


Remote Control - The company of Zimmer i.e. the death of classical film music.

In short an orchestra playing unimaginative amateur rock anthems with lots of drumloops and guitars that only grow louder. It's what Hollywood by and large sounded like until a few years ago when I quit. I have not checked any Hollywood score since except the ones mention here so I have no clue how RC has "evolved" nowadays. I check out any new Zimmer score of course so I would say not in a direction that appeals to me. Usually, its a negative term for many in here since it implies dumbed-down music. That's the bad side.
The good side of RC is a sense of adrenaline rush through sheer volume and cool-sounding tools to spice-up the orchestra. If you combine that with classical writing and various other tools from other genres applied skillfully you get something that is both blood-bumping and "epic" while still interesting and varied, a recent example of what RC is good at:



Naoki Sato - Over DRIVE Ture (https://mega.nz/#!kzJW2ICa!Jut3XqtaWZZVO-6mIjNe4HMXL9wCEZz7F5erSQga8LE)

Has anyone heard Antman and the Wasp? It was slightly better than the first one.

RC style isn't necessarily bad, it's just that modern Hollywood composers lack both the imagination and talent to utilize it or any other musical devices in a meaningful way.

The more I hear of modern Hollywood composers attempting to write like the "old days" and usually failing, the more I'm convinced that its their own lack of talent and experience holding them back rather than anything involving restrictions by the producers and committees. Take a look at this, where the composer was asked by the director to write in a 1940s film noir style a-la Herrmann and Rozsa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIB1R0rm3Uw

Thomas Newman was rigorously classically trained, and comes from one of the most prestigious film scoring family legacies in the world. And this is the best he can do writing in this style? With 121 musicians in a large recording studio? Just telling the orchestra to play the music exactly as it comes out on a sampler? Alfred Newman would be rolling in his grave if he heard this.

Compare it with something written in the "RC style" by Iwasaki:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTe4AzbiMp4

Yes it has that annoying RC banging percussion and violin ostinatos, but LISTEN to that brass, the dynamic range and harmonic density is astounding and concert-hall worthy, with a level of virtuoso that is easily comparable to some of the best moments of the "old days". How often will you ever hear anything like from 0:45 to 0:51 in any modern Hollywood soundtrack? You cannot write this stuff with a sampler. And believe it or not, this piece was the one recorded in the tincan studio, with a fifth of the people Newman used.

Or how about something from Yoko Kanno:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYi_hwUqnrI

Now I don't know if she stole parts of this from someone else or not, but listen to 1:12 onward. This is what Pirates of the Carribean has the POTENTIAL to sound like had it been under the hands of a talented composer who also embraced Zimmer's ideas.

No matter how much training any Hollywood composer has, it flies out the window the moment they get their hands on modern tools. What's killing Hollywood music isn't Zimmer's techniques, it's complacency.

So I am surprised no one here has mentioned the music to Octopath Traveler. It is actually a really nice soundtrack with live musicians and delightfully crafted melodies from Yasunori Nishiki, a relatively new composer who has done work for Uematsu on Granblue Fantasy. I would say if anyone is worthy of the title of successor to the legendary Uematsu, then Nishiki would be a good bet. Just listening to Olberic's Theme brings me back to the glory days of FF6 and Sakimoto's Tactics. I don't recall a better JRPG score recently that is this enjoyable.

Here are some of my favorites for you to listen if you wish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuIGHhi7O7Y

Yasunori Nishiki
OCTOPATH TRAVELER [THE RECORDING SESSIONS]
Tokyo Studio Orchestra



Arranged, remastered and remixed by Vinphonic

DOWNLOAD (https://mega.nz/#!82wWVQgK!-tLta0Jr2WNSX69jg4teZ02LK--AqcLj0N8PEfvQUMo)

Sample (http://picosong.com/wfLaV/)


I did everything I could to remove the loop. Everything you hear is a result of that, I think its preferable to the looped version but that's up to you.
More musing about the score at a later time. I like it a lot. And the end credits are lovely, especially the last minute or so. Grand symphonic finish.
I really think he's an excellent tune-smith or at least an excellent one in the making. No wonder Tanaka spotted him, he has some chops and gifts.
This is also well over an hour of orchestral recording even with the loop removed so dive into a quite substantial collection of lovely themes and gestures.

Enjoy




Final musings on the summer season


Score of the season:


01. Planet With

:D

http://picosong.com/wfLgb/ (new)

As of episode 2 (new preview above), this more than makes up for Gaist Crusher, it's Tanaka in glorious G-Gundam mode

"How did I score Planet With?
Mecha needs to be Big Orchestra and kickass. Mostly kickass.
Anime and Games seem to be the biggest global method of cultural exchange Japan has to offer, between countries and generations, so I will give it my all."

-Kohei Tanaka, the King of Mecha

Soundtrack: https://vgmdb.net/album/78967


Award for the most bizarre thing to recieve a classical score:


02. Joshi Ochi!!

Apolgies for an error from my side, the classical score this season is infact not for an "ecchi" series, as I had falsy assumed, but full-blown hentai, which makes it actually even more amazing. I thankfully posted the censored version unintentionally, the "full" version has additional pieces and good lord, what a crescendo... ... ... XD

Only "SFW" I can share:https://vimeo.com/278801617

I would laugh my ass off if that is Taku Matsushiba's hall recording.

But still, was about time, Overfiend and Blue Wolves were too long ago. Granted its not Warsaw nor Amano but still, the effort is commendable, I would actually rofl if they scored this to picture/storyboards. Don't know if this will get a soundtrack, I really doubt it, but someone really cared for this piece of trash.

Sountrack: TBA


Film Score of the season:


03. Penguin Highway

Umitaro Abe's debut score. It's Sound Inn but you never know these days... Samples are also on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437br5hNfrQ&t=18s

The track titles give lots of possibilities

Soundtrack: https://vgmdb.net/album/78787


04. Thousand Noble Musketeers

Takaki has a small but complete studio orchestra for Noble Musketeers and gives us a mix of his classical style and Sahashi's (classic) FMP territory: http://picosong.com/w9iSm/

Soundtrack: https://vgmdb.net/album/78781


05. Revue Starlight

If Tanaka didn't spoil me completely what Japanese anime musicals/stageplays etc. should sound like I would dig it. I miss the brass, it ain't a show without it. But it will appear later on, I hear it here and there. The series also got some sense of panache and is shockingly full of quality. One of the sample songs was an operatic song in the style of NGNL Zero so I will definitely check out the soundtrack in october: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UujROw2SiDk&t=17m30s

I suspect a good job from Kato and Fujisawa.

Soundtrack: https://vgmdb.net/album/79010


06. Cells at work

A mix between Suehiro's Detective and ReZero, also nice Tchaikovsky. According to Shuehiro he also mixed Beethoven, John Williams and John Powell into this one: http://picosong.com/w9MEa/

The second episode has even more pieces I dig. Looking forward to Goblin Slayer.

Soundtrack: https://vgmdb.net/album/78884


07. Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria

Another promising newcomer, Kota Yokoseki, just 25 years old, brass band player and freshly graduated from Senzoku Gakuen. Soundtrack out in september, albeit enclosure. I doubt it will turn up which would be a shame. Here's the Battle of Gaugamela in a Japanese Anime: http://picosong.com/wf4Q5/

Soundtrack: https://vgmdb.net/album/78768 (also Vol. 2,3, and 4)


08. Shichisei no Subaru

No composer credit so far but its a good-sized studio orchestra and very nice so far: http://picosong.com/w9MKm/

Soundtrack: TBA


09. Satsuriku no Tenshi

I believe Hideki Sakamoto scored this one. Good string writing (no surprise there).

Soundtrack: TBA


10. Hanebado!

Kato in cinematic mode, full ensemble is present and its very nice. No standout piece yet but its pleasant across the board and once the action starts it could be a real surprise. In any case, I really like what I hear so far, depends on the following episodes. I put it on here in good faith.

Soundtrack: TBA


11. Happy Sugar Life

Some interesting string and wind pieces, no orchestra yet but I suspect it. I really like what I hear so far. I put it on here in good faith.

Soundtrack: https://vgmdb.net/album/79028


12. Monster Strike: The Animation

Yokoyama with a nice change of style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1Tc7N2L9Y&t=1m09s (Kid Icarus vibes but probably intentional).

Could be his best score since Queen's Blade.

Soundtrack: TBA


13. Super Dragon Ball Heroes

Yuya Mori with a Big Studio Orchestra: http://picosong.com/wfVDb/ (quite a lot of SFX but the music is worth it)

Soundtrack: TBA


Those that didn't make it:

- High Score Girl: A full orchestra is there, it's Yoko Shimomura so you know what you get. Will check out the soundtrack.

- Lord of Vermilion: Not Iwasaki, but it has an orginal score. A nice little orchstra mixed with modern tools, I will check out the soundtrack.

- Angolmois: Some really nice pieces, a continuation of Overlord with a Japanese touch, should have some good parts. I will definitely check out the soundtrack.

- Yama no Susume: Very pleasant string and wind pieces, sounds farily large, very soothing, no orchestra

- Kyoto Teramachi Sanjou no Holmes: Some very pleasant music by Akito Matsuda, no orchestra (yet)

- Sunohara-sou no Kanrinin-san: Ruka Kawada sugary cute as always, some nice string pieces

The only disappointment for me is Space Bug, not because of the music, it's pure (generic) Hollywood SciFi of the good-old days but it has unfortunately no budget for live-players. That orchestra session Nobuko Toda talked about must have been for something else. Oh well, won't be the last score of the new "FILM SCORE" unit and hearing this sound among all the other pleasant music makes up for it.


Final thoughts:

In terms of scoring environment, Sawano is nothing but a tiny dot of (welcome) individuality among a plethora of orchestral scores and pleasant string and wind ensemble scores, from Yamato 2202 in pure 60s/70s style to Tanaka in 80s mode to newcomer Yokoseki going 90s Hollywood action to Takaki delivering classical inspired score. A hentai with a classical score with a budget, a musical anime with serious panache, and various other styles of scores that are not orchestral or even real instruments but very pleasant.

Its the season Japanese anime is evidently a weird as hell medium with wonderful music. And that's how it should be.

Roll on fall with an almost complete 90s seasonal ensemble cast sans Yoko Kanno (Oshima (x2), Amano/Sagisu, Wada), Warsaw confirmed, in addition to Iwasaki with a potential orchestral score (or at least another Akame ga Kill), Keiichi Suzuki scoring a film and the third act of Yamato 2202 (releases in November) and Hattori's Godzilla. All that with the many scores from the next generation of orchestral composers: Shunpei Ishige, Masato Coda (x2), Kenichiro Suehiro, Harumi Fuuki, and Maiko Iuchi + Keiji Inai combo, Misa Chujo's return with a real ensemble and a potential Kameoka score for the new Monster Strike Movie as well as the chance of more promising newcomers.

Good times ahead on the anime front :)

Thanks for trimming the fat on Octopath! I've enjoyed the samples I've heard so far.

@Zipper: To be fair to Thomas Newman, he was horribly miscast for the film. Shawshank is the type of film he was born to score for (and they don't make films like that anymore). I still get a little teary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEUXKiOm0Ps

Now, David Newman, oh boy, he would have knocked it out of the park...

About Kanno, don't know about ripped-off but it sounds earingly similar to JNH's Waterworld: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFqSW-UzOGA

Thomas Newman was rigorously classically trained, and comes from one of the most prestigious film scoring family legacies in the world. And this is the best he can do writing in this style? With 121 musicians in a large recording studio? Just telling the orchestra to play the music exactly as it comes out on a sampler? Alfred Newman would be rolling in his grave if he heard this.
I don't think anyone has ever considered Thomas Newman a versatile composer. His style is very dreary and melancholic, often theme-less, which is perfect for most of the projects he gets attached to, but you'd never hire him to score a superhero movie, let alone try to imitate golden era composers.

As far as imitating golden age film scores, Horner's attempt is pretty amusing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgscVaXvquo

I don't think anyone has ever considered Thomas Newman a versatile composer. His style is very dreary and melancholic, often theme-less, which is perfect for most of the projects he gets attached to, but you'd never hire him to score a superhero movie, let alone try to imitate golden era composers.I don't think there's anything wrong with Newman's attempts at a Golden Age score from a technical standpoint. All the orchestral flourishes and crescendos of that era you would expect are there. The melody isn't outstanding, but it would not sound out-of-place in that era. On paper, it works fine.

But the sound... it's so dry, so synthetic, so pathetic- the musicians are just playing the music mechanically with no nuance. It's hard to believe that this is a 121 piece orchestra and not a souped up sampler.

That piece that Vinphonic posted from Shawshank had far more life to it, and unsurprisingly it was made in the early 90s, before samplers were commonplace, and back when Hollywood composers had no choice but to do most of this work by hand and crappy MIDI.

I think Mike Verta made a comment a few years ago about how Newman would "write 2 hours of music and have it recorded in 2 hours in the studio". It's never been more apparent than it is here.

---------- Post added at 04:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:26 AM ----------

Interesting about Violet Evergarden:


Call: He really played well for us, matching himself to an orchestra of more than 50 people.

Interviewer: That’s a pretty large size for an orchestra.

Call: I think we used the largest studio that has ever been used to record BGM for a TV anime. We used an orchestral booth for the recording, so it’s also the biggest that I’ve ever done myself.

Full interview here:

https://atmafunomena.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/violet-evergarden-composer-interview-evan-call-from-berklee-to-leidenschaftlich/

(I hate the opinions of this blogger and the community he panders to, but this article is worth sharing beyond my biases)

What is even going on anymore... I was too soon to call it quits, this summer keeps on giving: Super Dragon Ball Heroes (http://picosong.com/wfVDb/) (quite a lot of SFX but the music is worth it)
Yuya Mori with a big studio orchestra, granted for an eight minute show but this is all from a single episode and its Dragon Ball, so there's a chance for a soundtrack.

There's still three shows that will begin airing in august, how many more surprises? :D

I have to update my list.


@Zipper: It reaffirms what I observe, relative freedom of expression, and juding by the number of good sounding orchestral scores this year it seems like Japan finally has decent scoring stages or really good engineers.


In other scoring news, the third episode of Joshi Ochi!! is not classical but equally astounding. Now I'm pretty sure its Taku Matsushiba.

And Die Neue These is so alright, I would even call it good in parts. And thats thanks to Yasuhisa Inoue ;)

http://picosong.com/wfXed/

We have to wait till september for all of his contributions but Hashimoto is not too shabby either: http://picosong.com/wfXCN/



!!!!!

And that we FINALLY live in a world were this is just the first of MANY concerts fills my heart with joy (but the company should consider contracting the New Japan Philharmonic and a really good engineer for the follow-ups ;))

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1017773347642281985/-CbDkIoz?format=jpg&name=600x314

http://macross.jp/special/orchestra2018_f10/

http://macross.jp/special/orchestra2018_f10/So what will they be playing? Kanno's music, or orchestral rearrangements of all the crappy J-Pop from Delta? Fully expecting the latter.

Whatever the case nothing will top Kanno's concert extravaganza decade ago where she flew in the entirety of Warsaw and god knows what else. Since she hasn't written anything for Macross since Frontier, a new concert would be redundant if it were just for her music.

It's a Macross Frontier concert. With luck we're getting something like Turn A's Moon, with MUCH luck.

The new Macross announcement is also long overdue, its the 35th anniversary of the franchise, it's the tenth anniversary of frontier and they choose to celebrate the series in the concert hall with Kanno, so, maybe trying my luck a bit too much, as we already have a Warsaw score next season, but seeing the league of 90s veterans assembled without Kanno just doesn't sit right with me ;)

If Kanno does not appear on the new Macross... well, I won't be expecting her for this franchise ever again.

A continuation of Frontier would also increase the likelyhood of the unreleased Warsaw pieces to be released (unless Kanno plans a celebration of her career like Sagisu).

I don't think there's anything wrong with Newman's attempts at a Golden Age score from a technical standpoint. All the orchestral flourishes and crescendos of that era you would expect are there. The melody isn't outstanding, but it would not sound out-of-place in that era. On paper, it works fine.

But the sound... it's so dry, so synthetic, so pathetic- the musicians are just playing the music mechanically with no nuance. It's hard to believe that this is a 121 piece orchestra and not a souped up sampler.
There's definitely something amiss since Thomas Pasatieri is credited as orchestrator, and he's worked with both Thomas Newman and Horner a lot. If it is indeed a 121-piece orchestra, I think the orchestration is too light. The low brass is thin, and the woodwinds are virtually non-existent. No piccolo, no harp, no tuba. I don't really have an explanation.

Apolgies for an error from my side, the classical score this season is infact not for an "ecchi" series, as I had falsy assumed, but full-blown hentai, which makes it actually even more amazing. I thankfully posted the censored version unintentionally, the "full" version has additional pieces and good lord, what a crescendo... ... ... XDGoldsmith scored a near porno film (Basic Instinct) and it turned out to be one of his best scores in his late career. Not saying that I expect the same level of quality from a cheap hentai, but there may be more potential than we're aware of. :D

Dragon Ball being brought up reminded me of a question I'm surprised I haven't asked earlier: what do y'all think of Norihito Sumitomo? He's the guy who's been doing the music for the recent movies, the Super TV series, and the upcoming movie; since Shunsuke Kikuchi has retired (as far as I know) and Kenji Yamamoto got booted off the series years ago for being a plagiarist hack, Sumitomo is the current musical face of the franchise. But I don't really like his work on Dragon Ball. Whenever I listen to it, it just reminds me of a poor man's Shiro Sagisu; a variety of genres, with a focus on electronic percussion and string chords for the action cues; but without any of the qualities that make Sagisu's music good. (I don't wish to try describing why I like Sagisu's music at the moment. Sorry about that. I'm trying to finish a music appreciation essay that's due in a couple of days, and I'm not in the mood for trying and failing to describe music if it's not immediately important.)

It's especially annoying because I know Sumitomo does have some degree of musical talent in him. Prior to working on Dragon Ball, he arranged the live versions of themes from the Professor Layton games (and the score for the Eternal Diva movie) to be played by the Layton Caravan Orchestra, turning a piece from this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCZ-_U3md4I) into this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNzm5xLoPMk). They're genuinely fantastic arrangements, and are what got me into the Layton games' music so many years ago. Maybe this type of Sagisu-esque "orchestral action" isn't really Sumitomo's thing, or maybe he needs more time or resources, but I can never remember anything he's done for Dragon Ball a minute after listening to it, and it's the most generic thing while listening to it.

The things you find on the internet...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbgInLJ81eY

Has Tangotreats been permabanned?

The things you find on the internet...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbgInLJ81eY

I've seen the icon for that a few times but haven't had the heart to click it until now. It reminds you why people like Max Steiner, for instance, hated arrangers and thought that "they should all be shot." :D

This stuff is so cheesy now it makes even Disco embarassed.


EDIT #1: Good news, just a few weeks after Ni no Kuni 2 we already get his next one: https://vgmdb.net/album/79159

EDIT #2: Even more good news. Shinkalion gets a soundtrack. Now please, Puzzle X Dragon, oh pretty please https://vgmdb.net/album/79197

And look at that, now it's a show ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RzbHZwLsow


Not only for orchestra, god bless this island: http://picosong.com/wfSZA/



@FatherDougal: I'm pretty much of the same opinion except Yamamoto, if he's a plagiarist hack, so is Amano, Kanno and a dozen other Japanese composer from the 80s and 90s I enjoy. He only got busted because its Dragon Ball and the whole world watches it. NOBODY cared for Giant Robo, Super Atragon and Battle Royale and even big anime titles like Evangelion beyond a niche audience. Okay, maybe BR but Amano was very mild on that one and it was not popular enough to cause a scene. We're lucky Amano can even still sneak in new work with Sagisu to be honest. I personally am not a fan of copyright mentality (a good aspect of the concert world was the honor a composer felt when fellow friends and musicans were playing around with his ideas), especially if the composer is obviously skilled and it even surpasses the original work, and had Yamamoto's music been for some obscure late-night anime he would still be scoring to this day. Japanese composers, having almost complete freedom how to score a thing, taking liberties with other ideas, experimenting without restriction and taking inspiration and "influences" from everything, often barely changed, probably didn't even realize they are doing something that could get them in trouble (in 99,5% of cases nobody cares).
Imagine the fuzz if the world had cared about Gundam F91... oh boy...

While I agree with you Vinphonic about the Dragonball composer getting unlucky, I do think the fine line between plagiarism and inspiration is fairly easy to identify. Plagiarism tends to happen when a piece is taken almost wholesale, with a few notes changed and without the musical identity of the composer using the piece. Inspiration is when a composer takes someone else's piece and "makes it theirs" so to speak. You can hear their musical voice even if the main idea belongs to another composer.

For example:

Prokofiev's (Original): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSPbTRd3AOw
Kanno's: http://picosong.com/wfEQJ/
Asakawa's: http://picosong.com/wfEQ6/

Regardless of what is said about Kanno's other supposed thefts, this is clear-cut example of one of the times where she actually outright plagiarizes the original piece. Almost nothing is changed- a couple notes flipped around, a new melody added in the center, but everything else is nearly identical, even the orchestration choices. Whereas Asakawa's piece essentially rewrites Prokofiev into his harmonic language and melodic sensibilities and tempo, even if it's structured the same way. Unlike Kanno's, I would never confuse Asakawa's piece with Prokofiev's.

Admittedly I've never heard any of Yamamoto's work and have generally never had any good impressions on any of the Dragonball soundtracks. But I do find it ridiculous how something like this can destroy his career whereas someone like Tyler Bates walks almost scot-free after the bank robbery that was 300.

It's especially annoying because I know Sumitomo does have some degree of musical talent in him. Prior to working on Dragon Ball, he arranged the live versions of themes from the Professor Layton games (and the score for the Eternal Diva movie) to be played by the Layton Caravan Orchestra, turning a piece from this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCZ-_U3md4I) into this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNzm5xLoPMk). They're genuinely fantastic arrangements, and are what got me into the Layton games' music so many years ago. Maybe this type of Sagisu-esque "orchestral action" isn't really Sumitomo's thing, or maybe he needs more time or resources, but I can never remember anything he's done for Dragon Ball a minute after listening to it, and it's the most generic thing while listening to it.

It's hardly brilliant, but I thought this had some nice moments:

Tonight, at Romance Theater (Tonight, at the Movies) - Norihito Sumitomo


https://mega.nz/#F!rfoFBTTD!jff_HLJIfv8OEehV-Ox_0g!eKoRmDSS

(Source) (https://doramamusic.com/en/soundtracks-ost/198-tonight-at-romance-theater)

@BrinkFlip: This is really nice! Princess's Ita especially.

@Zipper: And Tanaka, the one and only, does all two in the same piece of music ;)

http://picosong.com/wf8kQ/ (also Parade of the Ewoks at the beginning)
http://picosong.com/wf8ku/


The line of plagiarism and homage is not what I focused on, we have talked about this in great detail and you summarized it very well. My spin on it is this: I see no problem with either result if the composer is skilled and has a voice. I see no harm done, especially in Yamamoto's case which was just bad luck.

Of course a direct-few-notechange-ripp-off is not on the same level as truely incoporating the original in one's own voice, like Hirano did with Wagner.

Look at one of many great Horner action sequences in film, where only the music makes it "action", so effective, so great merging of visual and sound... what filmmaking used to be, and yet the ideas are stolen from Prokofiev:

Stealing the Enterprise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkJ3--2K7yo)

With the copyright mentality, this scene would have been cut or even the whole movie erased with Horners career in the dumbster, over, no Braveheart.

We also would never have this scene: Iceberg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El8yMugpwm0)

I know the Hollywood business is not the concert hall in a court of law and Hollywood music is by definition a corporate product, still I would rather see the world not care about copyright when the composer has demonstrated skills and voice of their own.

James Horner was the very definiton of a plagiarist hack and yet he graced us with Braveheart and various other great scores, imagine what Yamamoto could have done sometime down the line if his career continued. He was a skilled composer who had good "influences":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7fOuZjASLE

Ironic that he got busted for a piece by Horner, the "doctor of music" plagiarism king. He just had the luxury all composers he plagiaristed were long dead.

And even then, by the definition, many classical composers would have been plagiarist hacks too.

My point is, that plagiarism for me right now (and for pretty much all Japanese composers) is not a crime and there's nothing inherently wrong with it unless you build your career entirely on it because you have neither skill nor talent, and you don't have your own voice. That's why I don't care anymore about composers like Amano and Kanno ripping of the entire Hollywood and classical league, at the end of the day we hear great music and can clearly recognize their voice, end of story.

While I agree with you Vinphonic about the Dragonball composer getting unlucky, I do think the fine line between plagiarism and inspiration is fairly easy to identify. Plagiarism tends to happen when a piece is taken almost wholesale, with a few notes changed and without the musical identity of the composer using the piece. Inspiration is when a composer takes someone else's piece and "makes it theirs" so to speak. You can hear their musical voice even if the main idea belongs to another composer.

For example:

Prokofiev's (Original): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSPbTRd3AOw
Kanno's: http://picosong.com/wfEQJ/
Asakawa's: http://picosong.com/wfEQ6/

Regardless of what is said about Kanno's other supposed thefts, this is clear-cut example of one of the times where she actually outright plagiarizes the original piece. Almost nothing is changed- a couple notes flipped around, a new melody added in the center, but everything else is nearly identical, even the orchestration choices. Whereas Asakawa's piece essentially rewrites Prokofiev into his harmonic language and melodic sensibilities and tempo, even if it's structured the same way. Unlike Kanno's, I would never confuse Asakawa's piece with Prokofiev's.

Admittedly I've never heard any of Yamamoto's work and have generally never had any good impressions on any of the Dragonball soundtracks. But I do find it ridiculous how something like this can destroy his career whereas someone like Tyler Bates walks almost scot-free after the bank robbery that was 300.

S'all in the ear of the beholder, at the end of the day. Even tiny lil changes can add up to a whole lot in crafting a new mood or tone or character to a piece, even as it clearly homages and nicks from an established classical repetoire, as so much of Kanno's Nobunaga work deliberately does. I would never mistake Kanno's piece for Prokofiev's, personally. Leaving aside length, Prokofiev's piece is more ominous, plodding, tere's more dissonance in the chords and more grand brass fanfares. There's a sense of wobbly, stomping dread and pomposity to it all.

Kanno's piece is much less classical and draws more from her specific film score affect, cutting straight to the chase w a strident, clearly-voiced string melody. There are no sudden fanfares or snares or angular string chords, just straightforward, melodic , lyrical goodness, given it's own sense of grandiosity and a sense something epic and threatening is going on thanks to the ripped brass figure(and really, why wouldn't Kanno rip it off? It's a great hook, big and memorable right from the first note). then the lovely b-part in the middle. Little changes add up to a BIG difference, subjectively.

On a related note, always thought it was cute how closely Summer Gale echoes Uematsu's Grand Finale? from FF6, and the two scores were contemporaries. Oh Kanno~

What do you guys think of this? Wish I had a good vinyl rip of this.

If tangotreats liked it, it's so cheap he could even get it and rip it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nCkQ_v6QmQ

Oh gosh, that's lovely!

Oh gosh, that's lovely!

I know, right? I was so happy when I found it. I love finding gorgeous music in the least expected albums or occasions.

It's the background music for a Catalan (Spain) radio TV program in 1978. Composer is Jordi Doncos.

Say, what became of Valkyria Chronicles 4? I looked it up on the net earlier and unless I got the wrong results it appeared that the game hit Japanese markets earlier in March. I found absolutely no news on the music. There sure were a lot of bang and buzz when Mitsuda's entry was going to come out.

Lovely indeed.

@Sunstrider: No idea why there's no soundtrack. But Sakimoto is not even a fraction as popular as Mitsuda. That and there was basically zero marketing. But all VC games have a soundtrack so I hope they will announce it. Some pieces were included with the Limited Edition of the Japanese version. It's a shame, budget aside I really liked it. I can instantly recall themes and pieces so I would say its your typical good-old Sakimoto. The credits are lovely, some pieces incredibly catchy, the action was good, the ending has a rousing finish and there's dramatic weight. If only it had budget for liveplayers.

I would like to hear more deep thoughts about my finding.

If you insist ;) (welcome back)

Wonderful music, actually one of the better scores of the 70s I've heard after multiple listens. There's a great amount of energy in it, especially in the brass writing.The music is Golden-Age quality and full of pomp I would attribute to the likes of Rozsa and Steiner. It's not as virtuosic as Asakawa, Higuchi or Korngold but it has many lovely gestures. The melodies are good, not as memorable as Rozsa or Oshima but not out of place for the era. 90s Oshima is comparable I think. Many pieces like the march "La Gran Expedici�" are intense and adventurous but there needs to be more going on in the brass section (more interplay, more fanfares etc.) for me to truely love it.

"Cavalcada Brillant" and "Obertura Simf�nica" on the other hand are indeed brilliant pieces, but far too short. Expand them to three minutes and we would have a winner.

Overall, it's a lovely album and Jordi Doncos is yet another composer I never heard of before. Judging by what I could find of him so far I would put him in the soundworld of Seji Yokohama, Kentaro Haneda and Yasuo Higuchi.

The sound on the other hand is no good, too many cracks, and the final parts suffer. A new vinyl rip is preferable...

Many thanks for your work on Octopath Vinphonic! This is lovely. I had heard of the game but didn't think about checking out the soundtrack. I wasn't expecting it would be something like this!

Don't thank me, thank Tanaka ;) (welcome back, too!)

He worked on Gravity Daze 2 as a synth programmer and now has his first major (orchestral) score.

The game is brimming with new talent as well, I first thought the art was done by Akihito Yoshida but it turns out it was Naoki Ikushima. I'm curious about the game itself (with such lovely melodies how could I not want to play it) but I don't have a switch, so...

Octopath Traveler is a lot better than what I was expecting. I listened to it a few times over the past week and it's a very nice, if subdued collection of melodies:

Best tracks:
Main Theme, Olberic the Warrior, The Flatlands, Cobbleston, Decisive Battle, Grandport, Battle at Journey’s End, Determination, Ending

For some reason Among Stately Peaks reminds me of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Does anyone else get that vibe?

...But Sakimoto is not even a fraction as popular as Mitsuda. That and there was basically zero marketing.

I hope you are not implying that they got Sakimoto only because they couldn't afford Mitsuda.




...If only it had budget for liveplayers.

uh oh. You mean it doesn't even have the usual few pieces performed by a real orchestra? There goes my hopes. As good as Sakimoto's writing is, I really can't stand the sound of his outdated synthesizers.
I hope he had the chance to do some solo piano pieces at least. Those are always great.

AH, how did I miss this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJg9I1kJo0

"From the Popular anime series RomeoXJuliet"

You hear that Gonzo? :D:D:D



Hitoshi Sakimoto
Romeo X Juliet [Concert Suite]
WDR Rundfunkorchester K�ln / Arranged by Roger Wanamo



Mastered and mixed by Vinphonic
Download (https://mega.nz/#!875gySxS!aUNu6ZZ8fINNnm3q0MZSwss9B7hpJT0tmmh1agE084Q)




Regarding VC4, this is as good as it gets from Sakimoto, sample-wise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9hdhsSBKy4
This piece has a solo piano version if I remember right.

What I've been hearing in Octopath w my roommate playing it in the room has been decent but not impressive. Prolly won't spend the hdd space on that one.

Ah, thanks for the thoughts. I was really wanting to know the thoughts of this album from someone else who has a bit more knowledge with words to describe what he thinks of it. And thanks for the welcome. I was saving myself for an occasion like this, to bring some unknown goodies to this thread. And I hope to find more as I think about them. I am very happy I found it. It's a favourite. There's another volume, but I haven't been able to find any rips for it.

As for the quality itself.. trust me, it's actually much better. An "oficial" version of this is sold in streaming places, but it's a worse quality, home made rip, with the wrong pitch, by the way. Here's a comparison for example with the track "Torneig." Here's the Youtube version: https://youtu.be/6nCkQ_v6QmQ?t=22m5s and here's the "official" version.. https://streamable.com/0o9pq The difference is highly noticeable, it leaves the Youtube rip in good quality. Perhaps if Tango liked the album he could purchase it and give it a proper rip. It's not hard to get or find, it's more about shipping to the UK probably. I'd love a good, FLAC rip too. I'll have to go with Youtube's opus and aac. opus is better, right?

AH, how did I miss this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJg9I1kJo0

Interesting. The audience looks like season ticket holders too, so they programmed this music as part of their season schedule? Maybe it was a Romeo and Juliet themed concert since they played Rota as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJg9I1kJo0

I wonder if Horner's Romeo and Juliet rejected score will ever get leaked. I don't think it could have been THAT bad...

What I've been hearing in Octopath w my roommate playing it in the room has been decent but not impressive. Prolly won't spend the hdd space on that one.

I may end up pairing it down to the best parts but the ending suite alone is worth it. Sure some of it is typical VG BGM but others are quite good. Generally the best stuff is saved for cinematics and end credits. That is just how it works. So you won't hear the best stuff all the time.

Maybe it was a Romeo and Juliet themed concert

Right on the money, mostly Prokofiev with very cheesy stage play. Hopefully someone liked Sakimoto's music enough to consider a full concert. It was very well recieved from what I heard.
We already did Game music proper, time to do anime too :D



I wonder if Horner's Romeo and Juliet rejected score will ever get leaked. I don't think it could have been THAT bad...

I don't think his Lord of the Rings Overture can ever be topped :awsm:

So, Bear Mccreary is composer for "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and I'm extremely disappointed. I really hoped, that the director of the film Michael Dougherty could work with Douglas Pipes again. Pipes wrote music for his two previous films - "Trick 'r Treat" and "Krampus" and his music was pretty good, in my opinion.

https://www.slashfilm.com/bear-mccreary-will-compose-godzilla-king-of-the-monsters-score-incorporating-classic-themes-comic-con-2018/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84zmNu-oZRw

:)

^Is that Oshima in Paris?

Close, its mixed in Paris ;)

http://www.sudovestrecords.com/in-progress/

I will also keep an eye on that new ArcTheLad mobile game, for some reason...

10 years. Ten. Freakin'. Years. Can you believe that?

Hi guys, long time no see, I know, I know, but as this is a very unique occasion, I thought a "special 10 years speech" would be quite �-propos. So here I go, and right off the bat I'd like to tremendously thank all contributors, past and present, who have made this thread what it is, and have allowed it to be alive and well to this day. So all of you guys, give yourself a big hug right now, come on, you deserve it! I'd especially like to give some special credits to those posters who came after I left, since I wasn't there to express my gratitude for their contributions.

Now, I'd love to make specific comments about the thread, but since I haven't been around a lot, mostly due to other projects (even more so nowadays), I'll just stick to a few general considerations.

I must first say that I do regret the departure (or scarcity) of many prolific and influential posters over the years, they really made a terrific job, and I'd love to see them occasionally coming back and contributing again if they can (and yeah, yeah, I can see the irony in me saying that, yet it doesn't make my point invalid).

At the same time, I'm also delighted to see that there's been the surge of a new generation of passionate, enthusiastic posters, some "new blood" genuinely interested in sharing the love of orchestral music in all its forms and incarnations: from a blockbuster score to a game soundtrack, from a classic masterpiece to a new composition you just wrote on your laptop, from some 19th century ballet music to the latest anime or drama score out there. You guys really are making a huge difference and are bringing a lot to the table, both in terms of comments and music. And to you I want to say: keep being awesome.

(Note to older posters: please remember to treat new posters well, because you've been one of them once; would you still be there if you were dismissed or unappreciated your first times?)

That's why I'd also like to encourage hesitant people to participate, whether it's only for one time or more regularly: if you also are interested in all this and want to share some music (including yours) or simply your thoughts but are unsure about doing it, do not hesitate to take that step, because that's how this thread and what it stands for will still be there in another 10 years, for the benefit of all!

Come on now, get on the B.O.A.T. (Big Orchestral Action Thread, of course, not Butt Of Alexis Texas, you pervert, even though both are very large and have been visited a lot), and let's set sail for 10 more years of new exciting musical adventures!



PS: I might *occasionally* come back to post about subjects I feel concerned about, or to re-post some interesting news, articles or interviews relevant to the topic. This thread has become an excellent venue to express ourselves on orchestral music and the whole nebula around it, since it has quite a significant audience (to the point of having been used multiple times by professional composers, and with even more of them lurking, I'm pretty sure). It would be such a waste not to use this asset / opportunity now that it's there, don't you think?

Stay tuned!

On the tenth anniversary:

Ha, I actually did manage to give the thread a visit on this dare I say historic day. I have nothing special to give I didn't already give a few months ago but I can't let this day pass by unmarked so take this from my "yet-not-shared" box. I think its best to do what I'm good at and people enjoy, the big projects are done afterall ;)

First of all, I'm really glad and joyful that you, arthierr, are still safe and sound and doing well. It's so good to see you again. What you started not only enriched my life but the life of countless others. I hope you know that what you, Tango, Lens, streich and others started is invaluable to all of us. For me this thread started a journey from Hollywood to the concert hall to Japanese entertainment and it awoke a burning desire to present this music in a neat package for all the world to hear. Others found their comfort zone much earlier (Silver Age Hollywood, 19th century concert world etc.) but your work especially opened my eyes to a world beyond Tanaka and Hisaishi. Then Tango and Herr Salat cultivated it with Kanno, Sahashi, Sugiyama, Amano and the rest is history.

This thread also made professional relations possible as well as friendships that go beyond this forum.
I dearly hope there will be another ten years with all old and new faces still around, respecting differences, becoming friends and enjoying music.
With discussion in good faith and striving for exchanging viewpoints and setting a bar for quality music, wonderful music even, you won't find anywhere else.

That's my two cents, the rest is in my sort-of-manifesto a few pages back.


Now, since we are (hopefully) in a festive mood, here's some more celebrations:


From Ivalice to Neo Verona
The Music of Hitoshi Sakimoto
Eminence Symphony Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!Bu4F0aBQ!ydwFkqczpjgxLLYMXxl8KpT15DToCi-KbmxoiyxP5R4)

Over two hours of orchestral goodness from Sakimoto, arranged by myself. Should there ever be a concert of his music, I hope some people take my suggestions here. One of my very first shares in this thread was a symphonic arrangement of One Piece, so in a sense I've come full-circle as well.
I've arranged a 40 minute arrangement of his Romeo X Juliet followed by various suites and medleys of his game scores. Sakimoto is a composer that perhaps unlike any other game composer deserves far more projects with a symphony orchestra than what we got. The self-professed game composer and tunesmith par excellence graced us however with some pretty unforgotteable game scores. Here is a musical celebration of his modest but quality career.

He's also living his dream as a passionate gamer himself.



Needless to say the games he scored for are full of quality aswell. His music sometimes just works better ingame though. Every gameexcept maybe VC2+3 gets a recommendation.
Please let him loose on a symphony orchestra again, Japan, thank you.






Aside from my shares I will of course offer one of my recent musings as well:



Since MastaMist held a laudatio for Kanno, and Zipper did the same for Asakawa, let me in celebration of this threads shockingly long life do one as well for my favorite orchestral composer right now. Not the best composer who ever lived and not the best symphonist out there, but my favorite.

Of course you know who I’m talking about.

Kohei Tanaka
I try a laudatio


The one and only

One of the very first things I did in this thread is spread the word and music of Tanaka and how could I not after first listening to it:

Love at first sight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubrccvGOiCU)

Writing about Kohei Tanaka’s career is very difficult. Where to start? Because unlike many of his fellow great composers like Yoko Kanno, John Williams or Joe Hisaishi, it’s not the best way to truly appreciate him only with the music he has written.

He is a very special case in the long history of media scoring.
Japanese composer Kohei Tanaka is a composer who not only helped establish but perhaps also created a new genre of orchestral music and was at the very birthplace of it, right at the center.
In the 90s he gave himself the distinction of being an “Anime and Games” composer, not a “Film composer”, and has ever since made a case for the wonderful qualities of this medium in comparison to film.
His career is so vast that you could totally just focus on his career as either a video game composer or an anime composer and still be left with an enormous catalogue of great music.
He wrote the first fully orchestral video game score and was among the very first who has seen the rise of the game and anime medium to prominence in Japanese media.


Q: What do you love most about your job?

Kōhei: That’s quite difficult to answer (laughs). The thing that makes me happiest is, you know after having written a song, once you present it to fans, you know everybody is very happy to receive them, and everybody loves them so much. That’s what make me happy.

Q: Who are some of your inspirations inside of music, and outside of music?

Kōhei: If you talk about inspiration, there’s obviously lots of different sources, but predominantly when I’m sat in front of the piano everything comes to me in my head. Especially when I’m with an orchestra, I see the score fully formed in my head. So all it really is, is me writing it down on a page.

Q: Much of your work is done in anime. Why did you choose to go down that path?

Kōhei: Long story, I’ll make a summary for you (laughs). In Japan, there wasn’t really any specialists who focused solely on anime in my field, so by focusing in one area I thought that would be the best way of getting fans, and making my fans happy. Also I like anime.

In essence he is every persona a composer can have in one: A serious concert composer, a Jazz/Lounge player, a Rock musician and a film composer. His influences are as vast as his scores, from Ennio Morricone to Jerry Goldsmith to Basil Poledouris to John Williams to classical composers like Beethoven and Prokoviev to various American Jazz musicians and Rock Bands. And all these influences flow into his unique and easily recognizable style.


The serious concert composer persona

He had humble beginnings as a longue player after studying in Japan and America but certainly that early career made the groundwork of his joyful outburst in later years. Here is perhaps the earliest music of "Monrio Erricone Jr." you can find (courtesy of nextday):

Kohei Tanaka: The Beginning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCnIf1kckbA&feature=youtu.be)

He worked together with Joe Hisaishi in his youth on various synth arrangement albums in the 80s and wielded the baton together with Yoko Kanno in the concert hall. Nowadays he is pretty much close friends with all the classical big players in the anime scene. He collaborated with Shiro Hamaguchi on many occasions and recently with Keiji Inai.

Toshihiko Sahashi had a period in time were he rivaled him (and sometimes even surpassed him), from the late 90s to the mid 2000s, but Tanaka is a long-term player and has outlived the heights and lows of Sahashi’s, Masamichi Amano’s, Akira Senju’s and Yoko Kanno’s careers while his own is on a consistent level, joined by Michiru Oshima, and now it begins to reach a new apex with Gravity Daze 2, Planet With, Shin Sakura Taisen, One Piece Stage musical, AnimeNEXT100 and World Seeker in close proximity.

And from the 80s to this day, he has become the very face of the anime medium. Not Kanno, not Hisaishi, not Oshima, but Tanaka. He knew how to play the game best. He fully embraced the silliness of the medium, became the king of the mecha genre, from Gunbuster to Planet With, from Granzort to GaoGaiGar. He scored for Gundam twice and composed many wonderful scores from Dai-Gard to Sakura Wars (which is Steampunk-Mecha). He also landed his greatest hit in the late 90s with One Piece, which became a worldwide phenomenon, surpassing even Dragon Ball. His theme song WE ARE is to this day one of the most recognized songs from Japan and to this day he scores new music for it, together with Shiro Hamaguchi. He wrote over three hours of seafaring romance and kickass television for the TV anime and a dozen film scores.
Under his belt are some of the most iconic anime and game tunes ever written. He writes pop tunes with the same rigorous force as his “symphonies”. His musical “pop” numbers are the best in the genre, Miracle Bells and Under the Imperial Flag shining examples.

He absolutely embodies the joy of music, from operatic stageplay to killer opening to smashing guitar solo to orchestal extravaganza, Tanaka's music always steals the spotlight and overpowers every scene. Each piece, no matter the genre has his voice and there's always a piece on occasion that is just so geniously crafted.
He arranged famous classical pieces for violin and orchestra in the 90s, wrote a 30 minute symphonic poem with a piano concerto as well as a full-fleshed symphony in the 90s and he certainly has vast knowledge of the concert world, in addition to being geniously talented who can pull up anyone on the fly and play around with his music, (in addition to being a great human being)
Tanaka is truly the King of composers when it comes to letting the orchestra jam. Whether frantic jazz or adrenaline rushing hard rock, he always makes the various band instruments and keyboards sound like a natural component of the orchestra.


Tanaka on a global mission, like no composer before him.

He is now officially recognized by the Nation of Japan as the musical face and official representative of the Japanese Anime and Game industries and has been flying around the globe in recent years to various concerts, business meeting and even diplomatic state meetings, recently in Saudi-Arabia, to promote Anime and Game Music. He appears on national television a lot, conducts or sits through various concert performances of his music.
He is also an university professor scouting new talent, recently launching Yasunori Nishiki on the scene, who worked on Gravity Daze 2 as synth programmer.

Tanaka is also occupied with being company founder and head of a professional scoring company IMAGINE, with crazy amount of classical talent assembled, that right now is bombarded with job offers.
All that while appearing on numerous jam sessions, engaging and partying with fellow composers, trying his hardest for a sense of community among anime composers and scoring music with such a diverse palette of sounds and genres, painting a musical world of Gravity Daze that is one of the best aural-visual gaming experiences I had (not because of the gameplay, the world makes the game). Gravity Daze 2 is one of the greatest game scores ever written from a genre mixing standpoint. The medium is rarely blessed with such good hybrid rock and jazz and here we get some of his very best. This is Tanaka rocking the house with much thematic interplay, pure orchestra on and off, with a beautiful fusion of synth and orchestra only Tanaka can pull off and with truly spectacular moments from smashing guitar solos to dramatic operatic soprano.

A podcast about Tanaka's music that should not be missed: http://picosong.com/wfDsZ/



Tanaka and the Gang

He is a composer that perhaps like no other before him, burns with a passion for the medium he writes music for. Tanaka grew up a heavy nerd and Otaku, has a shop at Comiket and is a music nut, traveling to Germany as a highschoolstudent for a Wagner concert, "I'm really weird". But he never saw that as a character flaw. He completely embraced it, displaying it proudly, scoring for cheap shlock and anime about producing ecchi, at the same time as writing serious concert music, conducting with a grim face like Beethoven.

No other composer in the history of media scoring I know is such a bright, happy, warm and wonderful person you want to hang out with and share a beer yet is so proud and dashing in being a showmaster, representing a medium and defining its sound, writing thrilling pop brass tunes and symphonic SciFi with such ease yet the music is so full of notes, a rainbow of colors, a complex net of motifs and themes, the orchestra spiced-up with all kinds-of synths in a way not even one of his idols, Jerry Goldsmith achieved. A whole catalogue of operatic pieces, stageplays and symphonic works, a whole cataloge of kickass Rock and Jazz.

Here he is even composing with Vocaloid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYVyY1SFv08

Seeing him sing his own incredible pop compositions live with such passion and vigor, smiling and laughing, and then right after conduct a symphony orchestra with a stonecold serious face like Beethoven, tells me he is the living embodiment of what music is.


Kohei Tanaka is too good for a lousy Oscar

His music is kickass yet classy, symphonic yet jamming, written with exorbitant skill and phenomenal talent with an orchestra. The amount of joy he is able to evoke with his music is in correlation with his own joy of composing and "living" his music is overwhelming. He is the ideal composer for me and the perfect choice as the musical face of the anime and game music scene and industries.
May he forever remain and be remembered as a fantastic composer, a beacon of joy, a huge inspiration, a legend and my idol.

As far as his Legacy goes, I don’t want his music to be imitated, I want the torch of his joy, passion, class, skill and fun passed on to a new generation. Some with maybe a greater talent and love for the concert hall, others more fond on contemporary influences, but all with the skill to command an orchestra and every instrument they desire, inherit the greats of the past, take on a pop song with the same energy as they would a symphonic piece… and jam.

- Vinphonic






On a teary note (in a somber way), since it doesn't seem Tango wants to come back, here’s an eulogy, should he not return. If he does I will of course withdraw it:

I will dearly miss his insight, knowledge and musical taste, his long-ass rants and heartfelt shares. He helped build the fundament on which this thread thrives now. I became a fan of his shares and stories and lectures, over the years he inspired me and nextday to truly begin searching and accumulating the absolutely wonderful treasure troves of music from the Land of the Rising Sun. He provided sometimes necessary criticism amidst general sparkling eyes, he was the ying to my yang, he stood up for good music amidst the fall of Hollywood, and we were always a little happy when he was excited.
That’s the Tango you should remember. He gave us much and made our days a little brighter.

Wherever he is right now, a long and happy life and wonderful music to his ears. Amen.


To everyone else, a toast and a cheer. I will be around, after arthierr's laudatio all the more reason. I'm sure wonderful music awaits. To another 10 years!

:bearclap:

Congrats on the 10th year anniversary and huge thanks to everybody that made it possible. I think you all deserve a huge standing ovation for your shares and thoughts that make this thread the most interesting in all the shrine, and one with a lot of interesting shares and new discoveries!

I watched the new GODZILLA anime (which I shoulda waited for the last one but) does anyone have some Takayuki Hattori to recommend?


I Will also keep an eye on that new Arc The Lad mobile game, for some reason...

Is it really a phone game? That's annoying then I won't play it. I would love a remake of the first two, and if someone would re-license the show.

Another frugal, minimalistic post, I can see. You really should flesh it out a little more, you know. ;)



Amazing post, one of these gargantuan, weeks-of-listening-pleasures-ahead posts that have become your trademark. Plus, Sakimoto and Tanaka are perfect choices for this special occasion. Keep it coming, buddy!

Since Tanaka is also one of my favorites, here's another very interesting piece of trivia about him that I discovered some years ago: he's known to be *synesthetic*, i.e. he can see sounds as colors and conversely, that is, sounds he hears simultaneously evoke colors to him, and colors (and perhaps shapes too) are at the same time heard as sounds. More generally, it's when a sensation you feel with one of your senses simultaneously is felt with another. It's a real, well known condition that some creators and artists have, and it's fascinating to think of how it influences their art, isn't it?



More on this:


Synesthesia is a condition where two of a person�s senses are intermingled. Either their cognitive or sensory pathways have some sort of overlap. It�s rare, affecting only 4-5% of the population, or about 1 in 2,000 people. Some experts however, believe about every 1 in 300 have some sort of variation of it, as there�s a wide variety of experiences one may place under the umbrella of synesthesia.

One person can say smell colors, while another tastes words, and another still visualizes sounds. For instance, linguistics professor Sean Day, PhD, at National Central University in Taiwan, told the APA�s Monitor on Psychology that "The taste of beef, such as a steak, produces a rich blue. Mango sherbet appears as a wall of lime green with thin wavy strips of cherry red. Steamed gingered squid produces a large glob of bright orange foam, about four feet away, directly in front of me."

To date, there are 60 recorded varieties of synesthesia, a word that in Greek means "to perceive together." But not all kinds deal with sensory perception. There�s also "conceptual synesthesia," where the person can easily visualize abstract concepts, usually mathematical ones. These are experienced as projections which appear either inside one�s mind or outside, somewhere in the environment. There are also many who experience more than one type of synesthesia.


Taste color and see sounds? Synesthesia may have a genetic basis.
https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/synesthesia-where-you-can-see-sounds-and-taste-colors-may-have-a-genetic-basis


12 Famous Artists With Synesthesia
http://mentalfloss.com/article/88417/12-famous-artists-synesthesia

And from the 80s to this day, he has become the very face of the anime medium. Not Kanno, not Hisaishi, not Oshima, but Tanaka.For what it's worth, I put Tanaka's skill level equal to Yoko Kanno and Masamichi Amano as an orchestral composer, and above the likes of Hisaishi, Oshima, and Sahashi. All great composers, but Tanaka has that extra bit of both boldness and polish to his music that puts him up there. Like Iwasaki, I feel that his constant flings with other genres has undeservedly lowered the popular opinion of his superb abilities with the orchestra for whatever reason. Absolutely incredible talent, and in some ways I do agree a bit with Tango that I wish that he would write more pure symphonic scores more often.

@arthierr: Ah, now I remember! I completely forgot about that aspect, that's certainly an aspect of his explosion of orchestral colors since he seems to already have the mental picture of the score in his head beforer he writes it. So, FatherDougal, you should really try this composing business :)

@Zipper: I'm fascinated that he writes music the same way its attributed to Mozart, all already finished in his head. It must be true because its almost impossible to imitate his style. Sahashi by comparison is easy to do but Tanaka is on a whole other level. Only he can write the music he writes. But I'm sure he assisted Nakanishi on Octopath Traveler, Tessa's cutiepie theme sounds way too similar to GD2.

As for pure orchestra who knows what Planet With has in store. I only know it will go bonkers. In general for pure symphonic music, I prefer Kanno and Hisaishi.



EDIT: What a surprise! Another newcomer let loose on a big orchestra. Takashi Ohmama (what a name) first little (big) orchestral score, and it certainyl evokes Wataru Yokohama's Afrika and good old Hollywood adventure.


Takashi Ohmama
Jinrui Tanjou -The Birth of Human-
Suite



Download (https://mega.nz/#!cmZi0QYa!_iv-9RCLd8u7F1x8x2MMqKZvsJQkgGJrB9CjbhEJQC8)

You may know him from Late-Night anime Castle Town Dandelion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRwhvfsBo0A&t=6m25s) and the recently shared Boys Over Flowers S2.

Oh and needless to say, he performed those smashing guitars for Mazinger Z and is affiliated with Toshiyuki Watanabe.



It also has to be said just HOW MUCH young talent and/or skill there is among the young Japanese composers.

@Vinphonic: Actually, I've been trying to do this composing for just a little over four years now. In fact, I think I might talk about how I got into it, seeing as soundtracks had an awful lot to do with it.

I never had music lessons growing up. A neighbour had a piano that I liked to play (read: mash random chords that sounded nice to me), but that was about it. I loved music as much as I do now, but I had no way of playing any of it. Then in 2012, our secondary school Special Needs class got a new teacher who brought a keyboard with him. It was a really cool thing to have, since it had a load of instruments and it provided something nice to do during lunch break. One day, a couple of my classmates were trying to play the opening section of the original Tomb Raider theme by Nathan McCree (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIWLT0QVPzw), but they couldn't figure it out. A couple of notes were always a bit off, and it bugged me enough that I asked if I could try it.

After a minute or so, I got the hang of it and was able to play that melody pretty easily (for the most part; I didn't know how black keys worked at the time, and I ignored the A# that you're supposed to use). They were pretty surprised at how I managed to do that, and so was I. Around the same time, a couple of other things happened - 1. My brother bought a keyboard for his birthday, and 2. I became a fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion; particularly its soundtrack.

I became interested in seriously trying to play the piano, and I started by trying to play the melodies of various songs by ear. While I couldn't play two-handed; chords being something that eluded me at the time; I was often able to play those melodies pretty well within a couple of tries. I started playing bits and pieces around other people, and they were impressed at what I could do. That encouragement, along with my continuing enthusiasm for playing more and more, kept me going over the next couple of years.

Around 2014, I became confident enough in my abilities to try and take things to the next level by composing my own music. As a reminder, I had no musical training and was working entirely by ear and my own (barely developed) sensibilities. So a lot of my early music comes off as pretty... meh, at best. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFTQ-fYS4B4) I did a couple of soundtracks for games made by my brother, and while he still enjoys them for fitting with his intended direction, I'm not too big on them myself. (This one for a cancelled game is probably the only one of those early soundtracks I can stand - https://jimsjams.bandcamp.com/track/level-theme-2-escape-the-dead-zone)

After a year and a half, I started doing original albums (which have some songs that I think are actually pretty alright; such as https://jimsjams.bandcamp.com/track/i-t, https://jimsjams.bandcamp.com/track/one-steep-step, and https://jimsjams.bandcamp.com/track/living-in-the-mountains-john-sasquatch-theme-tune) and commissioned soundtracks for short films and ads (https://jimsjams.bandcamp.com/track/cinnamon-sea-soundscape-3-hiding-from-the-rain and https://jimsjams.bandcamp.com/track/specialist-pain-relief-theme-1, for example). Again, I'm iffy on most of them, but I appreciate having the chance to make more music and try to figure out what works and what doesn't.

This takes me up to last summer, where I'd just finished my film production course and didn't really know what to do. At the time, I'd been lurking and occasionally posting on this thread for about a year, and the discussions made me want to become better at understanding music theory and terminology. That way, not only would I be able to know what I was talking about, but I could hopefully make better music. With that in mind, I joined the Cork Academy of Music, and ended up doing a lot of things. I've learned how to read and write music on a Grade 4 level (and am pretty okay at Grade 5), I did a lot of things in the production of a play such as writing, lighting, sound effects, acting, etc, and while I wasn't confident enough to try and become a performer with the class band, I spent a good deal of free time figuring out how to write sheet music in Musescore and how to compose better songs while making them easy to understand.

With that in mind, here are some of the best songs I felt I've written during my first year at that college, along with the colours of the keys I wrote those songs in (which helped me figure out what to do with them):

https://musescore.com/user/3259646/scores/5174992 (This song is in the key of E Major, which I associate with the colour purple)

https://musescore.com/user/3259646/scores/5174987 (D Major, or the yellow key)

https://musescore.com/user/27541261/scores/5050179 (C Major: the blue key)

https://musescore.com/user/27541261/scores/5057969 (A Major; it's a different kind of yellow, in the same way that I also associate F Major with a different colour of blue compared to C Major)

https://musescore.com/user/3259646/scores/5174985 (Back to D Major; the regular yellow key)

(For those who noticed the discrepancy in account names, Musescore only lets you upload five scores per profile before you have to pay for a Pro account)

This thread, on some level, is responsible for the above pieces of music, and I am endlessly grateful to all of you for that. Going to this college has gotten me to meet people whose company I greatly enjoy, and being able to continually work and improve on what I know and what I can do musically is something that keeps me going when I feel like I can't with anything else. I can't wait to do the second year, to keep trying to get better at making music, and I hope that I can one day make something that will be just as great as anything celebrated on this thread.

Happy 10 years to this thread, and thank you all for everything!

(If you want to know the colours to the other songs I've posted, they're dark green, yellow, dark green, yellow, blue, dark green, and purple, respectively.)

I will in get to that in detail perhaps sometime tomorrow, but I need some sleep I barely have these days. I'm glad you were inspired by music so much to achieve something and fascinating to have someone with Synesthesia in the thread. Learning to write and read music is basically all you need to be honest, the rest is listening and transcribing some Bach, Mozart, Ravel, Tchiakovsky etc. and then of course your contemporary favorites.
I'm looking forward to how you will sound in 10 years ;)

Just because I want to know what are your impressions on Tanaka's music with your sense of colors? :)



But before I leave, another reminder for me to wish a thousand blessings on a certain island: http://picosong.com/wfa6u/

I wish Sony Music got their head out of their asses and let some show BGM music be released.

If Pikachu Records still existed we'd have gotten some..

After reading Vinphonic's excellent post about Mr Tanaka, it sums up exactly why he's my all time favorite composer.

The music he composes just...works...flawlessly. Even his scores that aren't as grand as his other well-received works like Angelic Layer, Buso Renkin, and Rosario Vampire, have some form of life and color to them.

[FONT=Century Gothic]Takashi Ohmama
Jinrui Tanjou -The Birth of Human-
Suite


You may know him from Late Night Anime Castle Town Dandelion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRwhvfsBo0A&t=6m25s) and the recently shared Boys Over Flowers S2.

Oh and needless to say, he performed those smashing guitars for Mazinger Z and is affiliated with Toshiyuki Watanabe.

It also has to be said just HOW MUCH young talent and/or skill there is among the young Japanese composers.

Damn I was gonna share that when I got it. Oh well. Jinrui Tanjo is Takashi Ohmama AND Shu Kanematsu who is also alright too:
「From Clockwork Planet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaV4L1SpJJw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2rftwGRurA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjczZBIxZMg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54r6wXAVMvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1nbtpAOy5A]

And the other NICHION people:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x12AmZ5aomM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFnkwrdlHq4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ38NPD_pl4」

Really impressed by Jinrui Tanjou, thanks Vinphonic.

Ohmama is having a pretty good year.


Damn I was gonna share that when I got it. Oh well. Jinrui Tanjo is Takashi Ohmama AND Shu Kanematsu who is also alright too:


I'd like to hear the rest of it if you still plan to share it?

Let Me Eat Your Pancreas - Suguru Matsutani


https://www.dropbox.com/s/8huxiy4u199982q/I%20Want%20to%20Eat%20Your%20Pancreas%20OST%5BMP3% 5D.zip?dl=0

I quite like this one. A relaxing listen overall, with a few standout cues. Perhaps comparable at times to Yugo Kanno's The Curtain Rises, though never reaching similar heights and remaining far more subdued throughout. 26 and 30 are the most notable tracks.

(source (https://animemusicsoundtrack1.blogspot.com/2017/08/i-want-to-eat-your-pancreas-ost.html))

Feel free to share the rest, ladatree, I only have the orchestral tracks from Ohmama afterall.

As far as Sakimoto is concerned on that collection you posted, I assume I have most of it, what are some of the additions from the last 5 years? I just grabbed Brave Frontier from Gamemp3s (yes they are still here) and so I probably have most of it but curious as to what might be included I could have missed. Also good reminder that I need to listen to Opoona again.

Remember when I said Asakawa refused to score the Devilman OVA on grounds of being a Christian? I guess he must have compromised because he worked as an arranger/orchestrator for this:

https://vgmdb.net/album/23487

Another case where Asakawa is relegated with a mere arranger credit despite him no doubt contributing far more, but this time he's paired with a more competent composer than Ryudo Uzaki (Masahiro Kawasaki, who made the surprisingly decent Gaia Gear, and also worked under Uzaki as an electronics/synth "arranger").

This is going to be a shot in the dark, but has this soundtrack ever been posted or shared here before? Out of all of Asakawa's works, this intrigues me the most, because it goes against the type of more lighthearted shows and films he usually works on (J-Dramas and cheap kid's mecha shows). But Devilman is horrific, depraved, grandiose, gothic, and outright tragic. How would a truly "evil" Asakawa sound? I'd love to find out.

(There's also an "Opr" credit for someone. Could it be what I think it is? Is Asakawa gunning for Iwasaki? :P)



Speaking of Gaia Gear:


Gaia Gear Original Soundtrack 1+2

Sample (http://picosong.com/wfrXw/)/Download (https://mega.nz/#!TXQigS7Z!44i5lRo0xnRdf_6GeIjPqyL7HV1KzLjxCvwMXXOzSoI)

(I don't know how long ago this was uploaded, but last I checked the old file links are dead)

Gaia Gear was an obscure Gundam audio drama released in 1992. Surprisingly enough, the soundtrack was given a substantial budget for an orchestra and had not one, but two whole disc releases, including a symphonic suite. For a mere audio drama, this was very luxurious to say the least. But it deserved it. It's quite a coincidence that this drama premiered in 1992, because not only was it the year between F91 and Victory, but the score also sounds like a combination of the two series. It has both the militaristic bombast of F91 (with both dipping into Star Wars' Empire themes a bit) and the romantic, soaring melodies of Victory. While Masahiro Kawasaki doesn't reach the heights of either Senju's or Kadokura's scores, Gaia Gear still has a lot to offer.

Kawasaki is a synth guy and not an orchestral composer, so I'm sure he probably had a couple uncredited orchestrators help him out here (especially with that symphonic suite). But unlike the many talentless synth hacks parading in Hollywood given big budget symphony orchestras, Kawasaki doesn't hide behind his orchestrators and their fancy flourishes often. The melodies are linear and clear, and the action music never really gets more complex than a few blaring brass beats. And it doesn't need anything more than that. Kawasaki proves that it is possible to write a good score with uncluttered orchestrations that doesn't sound like the banal efforts of Kanno's Reconguista, Yokoyama's IBO, and Kawai's 00.

There are a few old-school synth tracks towards the second half of the first album, but thankfully this music isn't too obtrusive.

I’ll put it up when I get it. I’ll have to get Vol.2 somehow.

!!! Toshihiko Sahashi announced for the next Kamen Rider! It was not Sahashi's best but Agito had the Omen and many other things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqcFeEu5MPw&index=9&list=PLAY2aAj333CqUpkrxNsXr-dMREWwLYDr5

https://daisukitoku.com/2018/07/25/details-announced-upcoming-series-kamen-rider-zi-o/

I would expect the King of orchestral funk for this one though .

Nice that he appears now on new projects. I quite liked Kantai and you know what I think of IV ;)

Keep em coming.

!!! Toshihiko Sahashi announced for the next Kamen Rider! It was not Sahashi's best but Agito had the Omen and many other things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqcFeEu5MPw&index=9&list=PLAY2aAj333CqUpkrxNsXr-dMREWwLYDr5

https://daisukitoku.com/2018/07/25/details-announced-upcoming-series-kamen-rider-zi-o/

I would expect the King of orchestral funk for this one though .

Nice that he appears now on new projects. I quite liked Kantai and you know what I think of IV ;)

Keep em coming.

You, sir, have made my day!

So much for those "Sahashi has no place in Japan's current music industry and nobody wants him" quips Tango kept making. I wasn't blown away by IV, and I doubt this will be any kind of return to form. But at least Sahashi hasn't retired yet from media scoring.

To be fair to Tango, he's still not wrong in the sense he works for franchises/directors he previously worked on/with. But then again, that's how it is for most composers who are not super famous. Sahashi was THE anime guy to hire but back then the scoring environment was totally different, much smaller in scale and many of these directors don't work anymore.

That said, Sahashi could have a little boost scoring for some known franchises again and if he also scores the next Saint Seiya projects (likely) or god forbid even the new Ultraman anime (now a possibility), then he's truely back.



@Sirusjr: Unfortunately, VC4 is the only noteworthy thing. Though I've warmed up to Dragon's Crown Pro (at least ingame). I'm fairly sure he will get a live orchestra sometime in the future again. And quite a lot of people want to see his music in a concert/orchestra album nowdays ;)

Oh no, Victini got trouble :D



Shinji Miyazaki feat. Rei Ishizuka and Kenta Higashiohji
Pocket Monsters: Everyone's Story
Tokyo Studio Orchestra


Remastered and rearranged by Vinphonic

Download (https://mega.nz/#!Xn4DgAYb!UykKM3VUmzRyua-QldfHpuQXV79Amdl-7WqpR_mU6vk)

Best track title name 2018 goes to... PLASMA FISTS OF FURY!!! (http://picosong.com/wf7wC/)

I've given the sound a big boost since it lacked a certain punch and rearranged it so its more satisfying on album. I won't make a suite this time ;)
Wonderful little score. Symphonic music of yesteryear, Tom&Jerry and really good remixes of fan-favorites. Easily a tie with Victini.

But man, this series will probably be around forever.

Then:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0xwyFQqQd0&list=PL25E387C266BEFA18&index=4


And now:



http://picosong.com/wf7sB

This piece was arranged (written) by Rei Ishzuka (ma boi).



A close tie with Sahashi's Up to Now as my favorite scoring moment 2018. What he does here with Junichi Maeda's original melody is absolutely delightful.


But more interesting is newcomer Kenta Higashiohji:



http://picosong.com/wf7sZ/


It's the first orchestral media piece by a complete rookie (24) who was scouted by IMAGINE (Tanaka). Even more fresh-blood for IMAGINE. Bless Tanaka.

Watch out for his first solo debut!



EDIT: And since I haven't done it recently, always remember to buy it when you like it:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/MHCL-30532

Wonder what Zi-o will be like. Kuuga and Agito had a lot of rock/synth music, Hibiki was basically Hunter x Hunter and Den-o was mostly jazz.

I never noticed it until someone told me today, but apparently the intro to Avalon from Iwasaki's Jojo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htDB8SuLrng) was his reinterpretation of the intro to Goldenthal's Titus' Vow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SupXvj4V_io). Was Titus that popular of a soundtrack that it encouraged more than a handful of composers (Kanno, Bates, etc) to make their own spin-offs/rip-offs of it?

I may be biased here, but I find Iwasaki's version of that intro to be better than both the original piece and Kanno's Blaquarion- but in his typical "I love electronics" fashion he purposely downmixes his own complex strings and woodwind orchestrations to the point where they're barely audible in order to act as a cushion for the later dubstep crescendo. It's moments like this where I have to question what is going on in Iwasaki's mind, where he would put in the effort to write music that surpasses the original, yet present it like a dip for french fries.

This piece was arranged (written) by Rei Ishzuka (ma boi).
http://picosong.com/wf7sB

A close tie with Sahashi's Up to Now as my favorite scoring moment 2018. What he does here with Junichi Maeda's original melody is absolutely delightful.

But more interesting is newcomer Kenta Higashiohji:

http://picosong.com/wf7sZ/


It's the first orchestral media piece by a complete rookie (24) who was scouted by IMAGINE (Tanaka). Even more fresh-blood for IMAGINE. Bless Tanaka.
Watch out for his first solo debut!
[/CENTER]

1st: Oh geez!
2nd: That Kenta dude also helped out on HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI.
3rd: They must start them out fairly young nowadays, he's 24. The Master of Ragnarok guy is 25, one guy on Sengoku Night Blood is 23.
The LOST SPHEAR guy was 18, I mean damn they must know what they're doing. Or else I don't know what I'm on about.

I never noticed it until someone told me today, but apparently the intro to Avalon from Iwasaki's Jojo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htDB8SuLrng) was his reinterpretation of the intro to Goldenthal's Titus' Vow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SupXvj4V_io). Was Titus that popular of a soundtrack that it encouraged more than a handful of composers (Kanno, Bates, etc) to make their own spin-offs/rip-offs of it?
Did you link the right track? I don't hear Titus' Vow at all.

Did you link the right track?Yes. Avalon's intro is obviously no rip-off, but the harmonic structure and orchestration choices behind it are clearly influenced by Goldenthal's piece.

The beginning of Titus' Vow doesn't contain any of the same harmonies or orchestration. It's triplet staccatos. Avalon is arpeggios. If anything Avalon sounds more like Batterdammerung https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKQxVGs5xs8 which itself is a play on Wagner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7BqVavXID0#t=3m20s

The brass layered on top of Avalon is structured more like Batterdammerung, but the underlying jittery strings and winds are far more reminiscent of Titus. Avalon and Titus also both sound like they're ascending into higher registers while Batterdammerung is constantly swirling in flux (a trait typical of the old Batman scores and Elfman's later Spiderman). As a whole, I hear more similarities to Titus than Batterdammerung. The main difference between Avalon and Titus is that the former has a lot more going for it than the frenetic ascending trumpets/strings of Titus. Layering a separate horn melody and choir on top makes an impressionable difference to the overall structure of the piece. But the underlying components are still quite similar, as is the "bigger picture".

@ladatree:

It's certainly interesting how the medium is now also some sort of playground for young composers barely out of college. And not only composers, newly formed professional orchestra units are people in their 20s/30s too.

So much music written and performed by people so young, yet completely professional, with a unique voice and sometimes stunning. We better not forget the composers this thread (used to) complain about: Sawano, Kato, Yokoyama etc. are now seasoned composers close to 40... and as far as I'm concerned they affected very little.



It's also quite amazing that right now there's so much generational overlap scoring for anime and games, and I'm interested in them all:



1. (Semi-)Retired masters (1st Generation):

- Tomoyuki Asakawa
- Akira Senju
- Keiichi Oku
- Koichi Sugiyama
- Yasuo Higuchi
- Reijiro Koroku
- Yasunori Iwasaki
- Shigeaki Saegusa
- Katsuhisa Hattori
- Yuji Nomi
- Probably a few more I'm forgetting

Occasionally, they (can) grace us again with new works


2. The old guard (2nd Generation):

- IMAGINE brigade (Kohei Tanaka, Hayato Matsuo, Shiro Hamaguchi, Shinji Miyazaki, Akifumi Tada etc.)
- Toshihiko Sahashi
- Kaoru Wada
- Naoki Sato
- Kow Otani
- Taku Iwasaki
- Michiru Oshima
- Taro Iwashiro
- Takayuki Hattori
- Sagisu/Amano
- Hitoshi Sakimoto
- Toshiyuki Watanabe
- (Yoko Kanno if she returns for Macross)
- Kotaru Nakagawa
- Joe Hisaishi

All are pretty much regulars now (again), some have now more job offers than ever (Tanaka, Oshima, Hattori) and others have quite a resurgence (Wada, Iwashiro, Matsuo, Sahashi).


3. The seasoned composers (3rd Generation):

- Yoshihisa Hirano
- Kosuke Yamashita
- Natsumi Kameoka
- Yasunori Mitsuda
- Akira Miyagawa
- Hiroshi Takaki
- Go Shiina
- Hikaru Nanase
- Mina Kubota
- Hiroaki Conisch
- MONACA (Hoashi, Takada, Kosaki etc.)
- (Yugo) Kanno
- Yoshihiro Ike
- Tatsuya Kato
- Yoshiaki Fujisawa
- Masato Coda
- Ichiko Hashimoto


All regulars, some have their career in motion now (Coda, Fujisawa, Ike, Kosaki) and others dominate (Mitsuda and Ike)


4. The new wave (4th generation):

- Souhei Kano
- Keiji Inai
- Taku Matsushiba
- Kenichiro Suehiro
- Michiru Iida
- Evan Call
- Taisei Iwasaki
- Yuya Mori
- Akito Matsuda
- Shuji Katayama
- Harumi Fuuki
- Rei Ishizuka
- Takashi Ohmama
- Shunpei Ishige
- Umitaro Abe
- Shingo Nishimura
- Kota Yokoseki
- Yasunori Nishiki

The new wave of composers show so much promise. Nishiki could be the next big guy scoring video games, Octopath Traveler was a major hit.
Matsushiba, Nishimura, Ishige, Call and Abe could be the next big anime orchestral composers.
Needless to say Suehiro's and Inai's careers are really taking off now. I look forward to seeing them all develop.


The sense of community and "composer family" is very noticable in Anime and Games, no wonder since most of the new wave have the old guard as their mentors and the seasoned composers studied under the retired masters. Most are also part of "composer/music companies" with a strong sense of community as well. Of course the biggest is the JCAA which again reinforces that composers and arrangers over there have a strong tie and a personal lobby for their profession.

Not to mention the medium is nowadays in many ways directly tied to the Japanese concert world as well as their music education system. As a Japanese music student you have the opportunity to study under Senju, Tanaka, Koroku, Oku, Watanabe, Sahashi and many more, and if you're doing good they can get you a job offer for some obscure late-night anime with even enough budget for a real ensemble (Kota Yokoseki).

Then there's of course the passionate musicians and arrangers forming new orchestra units celebrating the anime and games medium, JAGMO of course being the most famous. The uprising concert craze also continues with numerous new announcements, now also with anime titles joining the fray.


Tl:dr: What a time to be alive!

The brass layered on top of Avalon is structured more like Batterdammerung, but the underlying jittery strings and winds are far more reminiscent of Titus. Avalon and Titus also both sound like they're ascending into higher registers while Batterdammerung is constantly swirling in flux (a trait typical of the old Batman scores and Elfman's later Spiderman). As a whole, I hear more similarities to Titus than Batterdammerung. The main difference between Avalon and Titus is that the former has a lot more going for it than the frenetic ascending trumpets/strings of Titus. Layering a separate horn melody and choir on top makes an impressionable difference to the overall structure of the piece. But the underlying components are still quite similar, as is the "bigger picture".
I'm not hearing the similarities you describe. I'm pretty sure if Goldenthal was the template it was Batman Forever, even the soprano vocals are singing the same tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0ha-FpAf0o

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC - THE COMPLETE SOUNDTRACK
MARK GRISKEY, GORDY HAAB, JESSIE HARLIN, LENNIE MOORE AND WILBERT ROGET, II
.MP3 VBR V-0 | 4"06'22



1:51] 1. Mark Griskey - Clash of Destiny
[4:16] 2. Gordy Haab and Wilbert Roget, II - The Republic Anthem
[3:30] 3. Wilbert Roget, II - Tython, the Wellspring
[3:13] 4. Lennie Moore, Mark Griskey and Wilbert Roget, II - The Jedi
[3:18] 5. Lennie Moore, Mark Griskey and Wilbert Roget, II - Knight and Consular
[5:35] 6. Wilbert Roget, II - The Temple
[1:08] 7. Wilbert Roget, II - Forging the Lightsaber
[2:14] 8. Gordy Haab and Mark Griskey - Ord Mantell, the Battlefield
[3:07] 9. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - The Trooper
[3:02] 10. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - The Smuggler
[3:45] 11. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - Havoc Squad
[5:44] 12. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - The ZR-57 Orbital Strike Bomb
[4:32] 13. Lennie Moore - Coruscant, the Capital
[4:23] 14. Lennie Moore - Leontyne Saresh
[4:01] 15. Lennie Moore - Corruption and Law
[5:15] 16. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - The Imperial March
[4:41] 17. Mark Griskey - Korriban, the Homeworld
[3:06] 18. Mark Griskey and Jesse Harlin - The Sith
[3:10] 19. Mark Griskey and Jesse Harlin - Warrior and Inquisitor
[4:52] 20. Mark Griskey - Heart of the Sith
[1:53] 21. Mark Griskey, Lennie Moore and Jesse Harlin - Rise of the Guardians
[3:37] 22. Gordy Haab - Nal Hutta, the Glorious Jewel
[3:00] 23. Mark Griskey - The Agent
[2:27] 24. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - The Bounty Hunter
[3:33] 25. Gordy Haab - Slave Revolution
[5:29] 26. Mark Griskey, Jesse Harlin and Gordy Haab - Dromund Kaas, the Seat of Power
[5:19] 27. Mark Griskey, Jesse Harlin and Gordy Haab - Kaas City
[1:57] 28. Mark Griskey and Jesse Harlin - Imperial Negotations
[2:47] 29. Lennie Moore - Lure of the Dark Side
[1:47] 30. Wilbert Roget, II - The Mask of Revan
[6:41] 31. Jesse Harlin and Wilbert Roget, II - Taris, the Plague
[4:22] 32. Jesse Harlin and Wilbert Roget, II - The Rakghouls
[1:57] 33. Lennie Moore and Jesse Harlin - Balmorra, the Forge
[2:06] 34. Lennie Moore and Jesse Harlin - Requiem
[2:10] 35. Lennie Moore and Jesse Harlin - Point of Resistance
[3:13] 36. Lennie Moore and Jesse Harlin - Operation Breaking Point
[2:01] 37. Lennie Moore and Jesse Harlin - The Imperial Occupation
[2:58] 38. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - Liberation of Balmorra
[5:04] 39. Wilbert Roget, II and Jesse Harlin - Nar Shadaa, the Playground
[4:09] 40. Wilbert Roget, II and Jesse Harlin - The Hutts
[2:04] 41. Mark Griskey - Traces of Revan
[1:53] 42. Mark Griskey, Wilbert Roget II, and Gordy Haab - Taking the Infinite Engine
[7:10] 43. Wilbert Roget, II and Jesse Harlin - Tatooine, the Desert Sands
[6:53] 44. Wilbert Roget, II and Jesse Harlin - Jawas
[2:43] 45. Wilbert Roget, II and Jesse Harlin - The Shock Drum
[2:00] 46. Gordy Haab and Mark Griskey - Cademimu
[1:58] 47. Lennie Moore - Alderaan, the Throne
[6:18] 48. Lennie Moore - Castle Organa
[2:15] 49. Lennie Moore - A Terrible War
[2:05] 50. Lennie Moore - House Rist
[3:46] 51. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - Jaesa Sees the Truth
[2:48] 52. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - Jedi Killer
[1:48] 53. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - The Death of Traitors
[4:11] 54. Wilbert Roget, II - Hoth, the Frozen Wastes
[3:22] 55. Wilbert Roget, II - Ship Graveyard
[4:30] 56. Wilbert Roget, II - Pirates
[2:27] 57. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - Diplomacy At Blaster Point
[3:33] 58. Wilbert Roget, II - Belsavis, the Ancient Prison
[2:15] 59. Wilbert Roget, II - Enemies of the State
[2:06] 60. Wilbert Roget, II - The Tomb
[3:47] 61. Wilbert Roget, II - The Dread Masters
[4:47] 62. Jesse Harlin and Mark Griskey - Voss, the Mystic Garden
[7:08] 63. Jesse Harlin and Mark Griskey - Black and White
[2:24] 64. Gordy Haab and Wilbert Roget, II - Corellia, the Shipyards
[1:52] 65. Gordy Haab and Wilbert Roget, II - Pockets of Resistance
[2:08] 66. Gordy Haab and Wilbert Roget, II - War Zone
[3:07] 67. Gordy Haab and Wilbert Roget, II - Fall of the Green Jedi
[2:17] 68. Gordy Haab and Wilbert Roget, II - The Children of the Emperor
[2:06] 69. Gordy Haab and Mark Griskey - Siege of Dormund Kaas
[2:51] 70. Mark Griskey and Wilbert Roget, II - Duel With the Emperor
[1:39] 71. Gordy Haab and Lennie Moore - The Fall of Darth Malgus
[4:53] 72. Mark Griskey, Wilbert Roget II, Gordy Haab and Lennie Moore - Three Themes Suite: Duel of Fates, The Mandalorian Blockade, and The Mask of Revan


http://www.mediafire.com/file/2qvd36xi00mip7i/SWTORCST.rar/file

This is a complete soundtrack I have been wanting to do ever since The Old Republic came out in 2011. The music was everything I wanted in a score - orchestral, symphonic, lush, dramatic, dominant with chorus and strong themes that stuck with you. It paid tribute to John Williams without being beholden to him. I fell in love with it the moment I played the Open Beta.

So, why did it take so long? Because I thought organizing the music would be impossible. The sound files was twelve hours in size. John Williams' music and the score from the first two KOTOR games were included, and sometimes I just could not tell any of them apart. The amount of files was so immense, I saw an task of cyclopean proportions. I didn't think anyone could go through it and make sense of it.

Twcool (Thread 185816) proved me wrong. Unbeknownst to me, the man had started back in 2015 to release the music with organized file names divided by planets, class themes, cantina and main menu playlist. He allowed me to have something of a fighting chance in putting together a complete soundtrack.

The rip has it's issues, owing to the music being composed for an MMO. The themes had to be short and sweet, which worked great for the game, but would provide a terrible listening experience. Sometimes a cue would be 2 minutes long, but often times they were less than a minute. I decided I would not title each track individually, but would mix them together into suites. I would not take them out of the context they were composed in - you won't see music from Tython mixed up with Korriban - but otherwise I made suites out of music that I thought worked well together. I think this resulted in a much better listening experience. It feels like a complete album, almost as if this is how the composers wanted it.

I will be honest, the composer credits are all a shot in the dark. The albums did a poor job of crediting who did what, and the riped files had no ID3 tags whatsoever. I did what investigating I could, and took alot of guesses. I am probably wrong on a fair amount of them, but I think I got 60% of them right.

Enjoy this. I put a hell lot of work into this. It was something I have wanted for a long, long time. I think it was worth the wait.

Well that certainly gets off to an amazing start. I probably wouldn't have ever listened to this if you hadn't posted it. This is some seriously complex orchestral work with large choir of the sort that I would not have expected. I generally avoid big game rip albums but this clearly has the quality to make it worthwhile.

1. (Semi-)Retired masters (1st Generation):

- Tomoyuki Asakawa
- Akira Senju
- Keiichi Oku
- Koichi Sugiyama
- Yasuo Higuchi
- Reijiro Koroku
- Yasunori Iwasaki
- Shigeaki Saegusa
- Katsuhisa Hattori
- Yuji Nomi
- Probably a few more I'm forgetting

Occasionally, they (can) grace us again with new works.

Maybe you can add Chumei Watanabe to the list. He's still active.

Thank you Doublehex!

Years ago I tried to dig up the Lennie Moore pieces or something else worthwhile but the sheer size was overwhelming and it was not tagged to boot.

This is a welcome surprise. Keep em coming :)





EDIT: Some things to look forward to.


Planet With (https://vimeo.com/282266214)

Episode 4 is one of those showpieces episodes. A whole episode of Tanaka goodness pretty much from start to finish. This is also the most "Anime" a show can get (and I love it!). I usually don't preorder soundtracks but damn!


Fate/Extra Last Encore (https://vimeo.com/282314678)

This summer season STILL keeps on giving... the finale of Last Encore is MONACA's return to form. My favorite moments of the score remain the Wojciech Kilar homages but this is quite the finish. The very last scene is quite beautiful, in a special Japanese way. The soundtrack is enclosure unfortunately, out in september and november. Fortunately its Fate :D


Revue Starlight (https://vimeo.com/282269135)

It's no Tanaka but damn, do they keep showing off. Kato's Hanebado is also pleasant surprise after pleasant surpirse, there's even a classical waltz. I'm still waiting on Fujisawa's opera showpiece but this is already a damn fine musical.


Thousand Noble Musketeers (http://picosong.com/w4n7R/)

It's more meaty than Precure so far. It sounds actually closer to Beet the Vandel Buster and Shinkeger.


Still TBA


Girls und Panzer: Das Finale (https://vimeo.com/261665951)

Certain... but not before 2025 :( (unless they split it)


Inazuma Eleven Ares (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l15F8YQIGY)

Very certain. Only a matter of when.


Space Battleship Tiramisu (http://picosong.com/w43VL/)

Likely now that there's a second season.


Puzzle X Dragon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjrDryOp2o4) and Puzzle & Dragon (http://picosong.com/w43Vz/)

Please oh pretty please, seeing Shinkalion and Hirano's kids show getting a release makes me optimistic.


Captain Tsubasa (http://picosong.com/weAfX/) (and Keijo)

I doubt they will happen but they might pull a KADO and release it out of nowhere. You never know...

Thank you Doublehex!

Years ago I tried to dig up the Lennie Moore pieces or something else worthwhile but the sheer size was overwhelming and it was not tagged to boot.

This is a welcome surprise. Keep em coming :)

Well I JUST re-did all of my WoW soundtracks, adhering them to the standards of what I did for Legion. I will be uploading them in batches leading up to the release of Battle For Azeroth in mid August.

How in the world did Yuki Hayashi of all people become a board member of the JCAA?

http://www.jcaa1970.com/english.htm

What is that bad?

More sneak peaks:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1023703049829863424

What is that bad?Not bad, but very unusual. Hayashi is a young guy and not a classically trained composer, has been working as a professional musician for barely the last decade, while everyone else on that list is more or less an established industry veteran. So to make him a board member on something as prestigious as the JCAA over others such as Yugo Kanno doesn't make much sense.

As a huge fan of Kohei Tanaka and Toshihiko Sahashi, I am definitely looking forward to the scores of Planet With and Kamen Rider Zi-O respectively. I'm open to listening to what styles they have in store for those shows.

Actually I would prefer to hear not symphonic Sahashi but energetic Sahashi of the early 2000s for Zi-O. Even the late 2000s were not as powerful as his smashing years (1999-2004), talking about his orchestral funk side. One score from that glorious period that gets quite overlooked is Dendoh, so full of passion:

Gear Fighter Dendoh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSkWQJ-BQII)

But nothing tops Ultraman Gaia's Finale (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lW0JSWrhlI&index=13)





And speaking of Yugo Kanno ;)



A present from ladatree

Yugo Kanno
Record of Grancrest War
The Film Score



Download (https://mega.nz/#!broTXDgb!pefTM4sWJKiariaj1MZX9w6a-wdKup86E9d0tRYYhhc)

Sample (http://picosong.com/w4FAn/)

This is at least a cohesive attempt at a film score. There's quite a lot of his electronic experiments I had to discard to make a nice 90 minute album.
Someone didn't give Kanno the memo that this is supposed to be an epic fantasy conquest series and not his personal experimental playground, but then again, the show was cheap as shit and a mess so communications were probably off. In any case I prefer this to Batman but be warned, if you can't stand traditional orchestral fantasy fanfares and marches transitioning on the fly into his Batman score, you will probably not enjoy it. But for the purists there's a classical waltz, a heroic march and quite a few romantic pieces to satiate that aspect from Kanno. The action is also strong, similar to Stardust Crusaders.

An example (http://picosong.com/w4FNG/)

If you want the rest (i.e. the electronics), here they are:

Grancrest Outtakes (https://mega.nz/#!r7BAnQRT!Ga147zif3vOL90vuKFerLaaY8HFqQQDyUO1p29if5w8)

He also announced his second symphony for next year so I'm interested how that will turn out.
The rep goes to ladatree btw ;)

Are ya'll ready for another "REMEMBER THIS?!?!" score?

:small

I think the Hollywood Godzilla having the japanese themes is a disgrace and an insult to Godzilla

God I bet I'd be arranged with shitty RCP tones..

Are ya'll ready for another "REMEMBER THIS?!?!" score?

:small

It's Bear McCreary. I have no worries.


I think the Hollywood Godzilla having the japanese themes is a disgrace and an insult to Godzilla

God I bet I'd be arranged with shitty RCP tones..

McCreary has been solid as hell ever since he did 10 Cloverfield Lane. This is in more than good hands.

Thanks for Grancrest War! Glad I remembered how you tag your genres so I could go in there and change it right away to Anime not Anime Score.

Thanks for Grancrest War! Glad I remembered how you tag your genres so I could go in there and change it right away to Anime not Anime Score.

...am I the only one here who does everything as soundtrack? Unless it's classical. Then it's just...you know. Classical.

I have separate genre tags for Hollywood time periods (Golden Age, 21st century, etc.), Japanese 20th century, Japanese 21st century, European, etc. etc.... I'm probably one of the only ones to do everything as that! :p

...am I the only one here who does everything as soundtrack? Unless it's classical. Then it's just...you know. Classical.

For me it is Anime, Game, or Soundtrack. Classical is separate. If I put everything in Soundtrack it would be too confusing plus Gamemp3s has been using Game for game music since the beginning. Anything else adds unnecessary genre items to my list. I find it strange when I see something uploaded as "film score" or "anime score" or the most annoying, "soundtracks".

If I would be listening to music via tags that of course would be annoying ;)

For me its simply just a description (Anime Score, Game Score, Film Score, Television Score, Concert Score).


@Skelly: Actually, thats not far off from my folder structure ;) One for my favorites, a couple for Hollywood periods (Golden, Silver, RC), one for European, one for western games, plenty for Japan (20th cent Animation, 21st cent Animation, Live-Action, Games, Concerts and Jazz). Of course the obligatory concert periods folders, one for new symphonic albums, and then there's a band folder with Rock, Jazz, Pop.

I'm German, thus very well organized :D

Soundtrack
Soundtrack TV
Soundtrack Anime
Soundtrack Game
Soundtrack Tokusatsu
Soundtrack Archival

Classical is broken down into sub genres such as: Symphony, Piano Concerto, Requiem, Mass, String Quartet, Fanfare, Suite, etc., etc., in conjunction with iTunes' grouping tag to assign the relevant era, e.g. 20th Century.

All helpful to narrow down searches and creating specific playlists.

I organize my Kohei Tanaka and Toshihiko Sahashi albums by year.

It's to listen how much their styles have changed over the years of dedicated work.

For me it is Anime, Game, or Soundtrack. Classical is separate. If I put everything in Soundtrack it would be too confusing plus Gamemp3s has been using Game for game music since the beginning. Anything else adds unnecessary genre items to my list. I find it strange when I see something uploaded as "film score" or "anime score" or the most annoying, "soundtracks".

I follow this same model. (Also Opera.) Not overly complex, not too broad. Just right.

Tighten your seatbelts, everyone. The ride is about to start:



To the Sky (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS5g90HnaDs)

Now imagine what her Augustus Symphony sounds like...



EDIT: And now I'm really looking forward to Nier! Here's a sample. (http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/nier/orchestral_cd/box/)



With Yamashita, Daisuke Shinoda, Miyano and Abounnasr on board, it will be excellent.
Daisuke Shinoda (on the right) also had the honor of working together with Ryuichi Sakamoto on a yet unannounced project. Stay tuned.

Excuse me, you on the right, this is the Club of Smiling People with Glasses. Please leave now.

Excuse me, you on the right, this is the Club of Smiling People with Glasses. Please leave now.

It's not his fault that he is the one with superior genes.

https://i.imgur.com/vVkoPPU.gif?noredirect

There's always that one guy...



Pocket Monsters: The Highest Musical Point

Shinji Miyazaki, Akifumi Tada, Kazuhiko Sawaguchi, Rei Ishizuka and Kenta Higashiohji
Victini and the Hero of Light and Darkness / Everyone's Story


Arranged and remastered by Vinphonic

Download (https://mega.nz/#!rvAghSKC!bLsLOqRCuQRQc_UUKmshqZqCuzcxxCUVo92mGn0XJ3k)

Sample (Victini) (http://picosong.com/w4qUB/) / Sample (Everyone's Story) (http://picosong.com/w4qdR/)

Since I'm really having fun with the recent Pokemon score and mentioned Victini I actually discovered they complement each other perfectly. And since I figured its high time someone makes a satisfying film score album out of the numerous short cues... here we are.

Among plenty of lackluster film scores for the franchise compared to their TV counterpart, these two shine brightly as the occasional symphonic ride the various longrunning Japanese series (which will probably be around forever) can sometimes conjure up. Of course the pinnacle for such a case is NAOTORA but thats Yoko Kanno for you.

Victini stands tall and proud and is (yet) not beaten in the Pokemon series but that's because it was two movie scores in one, with the theme of ancient legend, thus double the length of Everyone's Story and the theme of Epic adventure. Oh, and it had Akifumi Tada composing and orchestrating so that automatically elevates it to greatness.

Taking Shinji Miyazaki's work standalone, Everyone's Story is his best effort in the Pokemon film franchise. Its full of long-gone Hollywood romanticism.

Both scores are energetic and exhubertant orchestral music that makes me reminiscent of a Fallen Empire... anyway, it's all so full of energy, so full of the good qualities of film music that should be embraced. It's melodic, tuneful, orchestrated to the hilt yet every part is hummable, every part of the orchestra is used to their utmost and clear as day, all performed with passion and professionalism, incredible amount of skill and expertise, from TV score arrangement to concert piece.

Originally Posted by tangotreats




As if from nowhere, we end up with a truly wonderful adventure score(s) with all those things we miss so much from Hollywood; themes, grandeur, heroism, romanticism, tension, and glory. Actually, we get two. You see, Pokemon's 14th movie did something a little bit weird; it got split into two different films - they both start off roughly the same but branch off in different directions to follow a different protagonist. Each film has received its own individual and self-contained score. The happy side effect is that there is bucketloads of music to be had; no less than ninety minutes of score in total, of which the vast majority is just the sort of thing that makes us old farts weak at the knees. You won't be disappointed.


I've taken great care in arranging the numerous short cues to a satisfying film score album. It works now much better than the initial release I think. Soundwise Victini has my favorite Japanese studio sound which works quite nicely for the moderate orchestral ensemble and man do they jam. Everyone's Story was recorded at Victor I believe so its more wet and spacey but loosing a bit of the power of Victini's orchestral sound I had to manually inject into it.

I await with anticipation the TV scores for XY&Z as well as Sun&Moon, so much energy, romanticism, excellent arrangements and orchestral goodness yet to be released. I hope its within the next couple of years.

For whatever reason a bunch of commercials scored by Asakawa just showed up on his Youtube channel, probably recently unblocked. Most are pretty new too, from 2012 onward. Some highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhAERGA5YIc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz4S66SOHzc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFDMzKbV0wo

The most standout cue, Honda Odyssey Sea Hawk edition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ZtDk-81ng

He's certainly still as sharp and bombastic as ever, so I guess we can cross "tired of composing" off the list of reasons for his semi-retired status.

Those who used to know me when I was posting here a few years back might remember my considerable aversion for Modern Art, and the numerous times I copiously criticized it in various posts. Well, this is over now, guys. After years of personal maturation, I finally opened my eyes, and I can now clearly see how contemporary art is pure, unadulterated genius of the highest order.

I'm just fucking with you.

Today I'd like to repost this very interesting video I stumbled across some time ago. It's really well done, fast, researched, and perfectly hitting the mark. It accurately encapsulates in a short and highly effective, punchy way the *truth* about modern art, you know, what really stands after you got rid of the many layers of pretentious, grandiloquent, pseudo-intellectual horseshit trying to explain / justify it, in a desperate attempt to hide the fact that it's nothing but silly trash or shameless scam (generally both).

Don't worry though, this does NOT tackles modernism in *music*, only in visual artforms. Because to be fair, Even if there's also been plenty of ridiculous cases of abuses in modern music (John Cage's 4′33″, aka "The easiest money a musician can make", aka "The easiest glory and cash a composer got in history", is a prominent example), somehow, the intrinsically more abstract and intellectual nature of music allowed it to *occasionally* generate some genuinely interesting and highly complex works of art on a conceptual level, even if they're hardly (or impossibly) listenable on a purely aesthetical or emotional level.

Anyway, now enjoy this excellent video. It's very dense, there's a lot of material in a very short time, so I recommend you re-watch it a few times to get the best of it!




Paul Joseph Watson
Latest Atrocities in Modern Art


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea39dHj01yc

Well, I'm not the biggest fan of these youtube personas but the point as you said is well stated. You're in good company btw, I hate(d) postmodernism with a passion. Nowadays I'm less worked up. I have found my safe bubble were art and music I desire gets made. But I'm sometimes really baffled when I take a look at our side and marvel at how bad it really is.

Another (more academic) take on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNI07egoefc

It also works just as well for music.

Classical standard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLiiu7Dayds&t=4m52s) / Aesthetic relativism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E8Nm3hun0g/)

Words from the BigM:


For more than 100 years, masterful composers using plain 'ol orchestras have created pieces which transcend the boundaries of time and transform people's lives. They remain cherished and inspiring, discovered anew as only masterworks can be.

This will not be said about virtually any of the work being produced today, because it is neither masterful nor natural. All of these approaches make the playing musicians absolutely miserable; it's the antithesis of what they got into music for, and an offense to the communal, synergistic beauty of playing music together. They fucking hate it. And what's all this in service of? The product is forgettable noise, forcibly birthed at the expense of joy and musicianship - full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.

I would rather die an anonymous, failed master than a wealthy noise-smith. But to each his own.




@Zipper: Damn! Now praying for Five Star Stories Remake/Sequel...

A very nice choice of videos too. Careful before watching the last one, though. Oh the cringe...



About Youtube personas: I tend to be careful too when it comes to them. I've seen a lot of weirdos and money-whores out there, so now what I do is simply to stick to the message, and only judging a video by it. Based on this method, that guy is pretty fine, his discourse is clear, to the point, and he makes some really valid and well-documented arguments.




For whatever reason a bunch of commercials scored by Asakawa just showed up on his Youtube channel, probably recently unblocked. Most are pretty new too, from 2012 onward. Some highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhAERGA5YIc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz4S66SOHzc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFDMzKbV0wo

The most standout cue, Honda Odyssey Sea Hawk edition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ZtDk-81ng

He's certainly still as sharp and bombastic as ever, so I guess we can cross "tired of composing" off the list of reasons for his semi-retired status.

See, now that's some real, professional, finely crafted music. Something that took time and effort to create, and ends up being simply BEAUTIFUL, without having to justify itself with some pedantic conceptual bullshit. And this quality material is made for what? For something as mundane as TV commercials!

While at the same time, somewhere, a pianist is simply sitting in a room and awkwardly waiting for four and a half minutes, doing NOTHING else, and (some) people call it genius, revolutionary, sublime, Magnum Opus and whatnot. Oh yes, that poor bugger made some really easy money, good for him, but how does he feel inside after that? Is this why he became a pianist? Is it why he trained so hard and studied so much for years? Is he proud to be a part of such a travesty of "music"?

I've lurked on this thread for several years now, and while I hate that this should be my first post here, instead of discussing one of the composers we all love, I feel compelled to post this well-thought out rebuttal to a different Paul Joseph Watson video on this same topic.


Shaun

Paul Joseph Watson is Wrong About: Art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAM9Z4s-dPI

Paul Joseph Watson is affiliated with InfoWars.com, the site and channel of conspiracy theory peddler and original internet shouty-man, Alex Jones. Regardless of how you feel about modern art, he's not really someone whose opinions you should take too seriously. I greatly value the musical insight and knowledge displayed by the people who post in this thread, so I hate to see Watson being linked here unchallenged.

Paul Joseph Watson is affiliated with InfoWars.com, the site and channel of conspiracy theory peddler and original internet shouty-man, Alex Jones. Regardless of how you feel about modern art, he's not really someone whose opinions you should take too seriously. I greatly value the musical insight and knowledge displayed by the people who post in this thread, so I hate to see Watson being linked here unchallenged."Even a broken clock is right twice a day"

Ah yes, modern music. You have people like Prokofiev, who pushed boundaries on what could be done with an orchestra.

And then you have his grandson. Performed by the BBC Proms, everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38atRejUORM

Meanwhile terrible electronic scores with no melody, harmony, or any other notable thought put behind them are lauded as "the future of musical expression"- see the critic beard-stroking nonsense that surrounds Trent Renzor's "music".

It seems the biggest excuse nowadays for a lot of modernist music having no clear signs of craftsmanship is that they are striving for "originality"- people like Williams get slammed constantly because he still uses 19th and early 20th century orchestral idioms in his music. Even other supposedly more modernist orchestral composers such as Alex North and Goldenthal also got berated by these same critics for the same reasons- see some of the reviews for Goldenthal's Vietnam Oratorio. We've gotten to the point where expressive ideas originally meant to make music form more accessible and flexible to both composers the general public and free from restrictions eat itself up in its own mediocrity until ironically enough the only people who enjoy it are those who have deluded themselves in their own cult.

That's why I praise these Japanese composers experimenting and doing whatever genre-twisting and blending they want, free from the stigma associated with this practice, and usually done with incredible amounts of skill and technical finesse that Gabriel and his cronies could never achieve in their lifetimes- all made accessible to the general public to enjoy and not the fart-sniffing critics.



@Zipper: Damn! Now praying for Five Star Stories Remake/Sequel...We already sorta had that with Gothicmade, and Asakawa's only presence in there was a harp. As someone who also knows quite a bit about that franchise, I also know that the old movie was a bit of an aberration made against the wishes of the original author, and since he has full creative control of the franchise now, it's unlikely there will ever be a remake involving the same people who made the old movie, if there ever is a remake at all.

I would be more accepting of Asakawa's current position had he felt that he had peaked as a composer and content with just playing the harp. But even in music for silly 30 second commercials, it sounds as if he still has a lot left to say. And that's really the most tragic part of his retirement.

@EmperorMattXV: First off, welcome :)

Second, I would not get worked up about that. Sometimes even a blind person can hit a bull's eye ;)
I don't care about these youtube personas tbh so I didn't know its a big deal... and I think all these personas are staged regardless. They have to pay the bills somehow. No harm can come from exchanging viewpoints or opinions uttered, regardless from whom they came from. I think its all good :)



Btw, a bit of trivia, another reason to love Japan, the amount of artistry and "inheriting" classical standard in their media projects is sometimes not only limited to the music:





https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/ring-cycle-the-valkyrie-arthur-rackham.jpghttp://fs1.directupload.net/images/180801/a8zjcce9.jpg

I've lurked on this thread for several years now, and while I hate that this should be my first post here, instead of discussing one of the composers we all love, I feel compelled to post this well-thought out rebuttal to a different Paul Joseph Watson video on this same topic.


Shaun

Paul Joseph Watson is Wrong About: Art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAM9Z4s-dPI

Paul Joseph Watson is affiliated with InfoWars.com, the site and channel of conspiracy theory peddler and original internet shouty-man, Alex Jones. Regardless of how you feel about modern art, he's not really someone whose opinions you should take too seriously. I greatly value the musical insight and knowledge displayed by the people who post in this thread, so I hate to see Watson being linked here unchallenged.



Welcome, Matt (or should I say Your Highness?). Glad that you lost your forum virginity to this thread. I hope it was good. ;)



Now, for the sake of clarity (and also to go a little faster), I'll present my reply to you in a few perfectly clear points:

1) I did not know Paul Joseph Watson's background. And I didn't know him at all before seeing this video, which appeared spontaneously on my Youtube frontpage some time ago. I'm glad that it did.

2) I do know Alex Jones on the other hand, and the guy goes straight to the aforementioned "weirdos and money-whores" category in my previous post (the one just above yours).

3) As I said in that same post above, I only care about the message, not the messenger. So even if Watson belongs to or works with InfoWars.com (or the north korean regime, or the Klingons), it doesn't *automatically* makes anything he says wrong or invalid. It would be like saying: "Himmler said: "cakes are awesome!", therefore cakes are BAD, and if you don't agree with this, you're a NAZI!"

4) So, again, I chose to repost this video, not because I'm affiliated in any way, shape or form with the same groups as the creator, but because it's a) a really good video, clear and to the point, b) well-documented and illustrated with good examples, and c) ultimately true. I can't disagree with anything he says; it's a really accurate description and honest assessment of the current state of Art.

5) While I appreciate that you brought up this rebuttal, I won't discuss it since it responds to a completely different Watson video. But, again, thanks for participating to the discussion and making it progress.



I can't be any clearer than that!

@Vinphonic: Thank you for the welcome!

I would just advise caution when dealing with Internet talking heads. They may be saying something you like, but they may not have the best of intentions in doing so.

At any rate, just to give some idea of my tastes, I'm primarily interested in anime music. I'm a HUGE Oshima fan (I originally found this site looking for the rest of her work not available on Youtube and stumbled upon her Discography thread here), along with most of the old guard like Yoko Kanno, Tanaka, Sahashi, Iwasaki, Hamaguchi and so on. This thread has also introduced me to composers like Kosuke Yamashita and Tomoyuki Asakawa, who I wasn't really paying much attention to before.

I'm particularly anticipating the future careers of Keiji Inai and Kenichiro Suehiro, who I think could potentially be the great composers of tomorrow if they get the right opportunities.

Cheers, and I look forward to much more interesting music to come.

Paul Joseph Watson is a hateful moron who is absolutely wrong about just about everything, as just about everything he says is purely a reaction to things he hates for entirely spurious or racist reasons, and this describes absolutely everyone associated w Infowars. Just clearing that up for anybody unawares.

A fascist is wrong about everything, including art? Gee, color me surprised.

If you want to associate us with fascists because we think most modern art is garbage, feel free to do so. Won't make you look any less ignorant than Watson.

I'm not calling people fascist because they hate modern art. Don't be ridicules. I am calling Paul Joseph Watson a fascist because he is one.

lol

It's perfectly fine and cool if you've never heard of PJW or his wholly wretched and well-earned reputation, but out of respect to this poster among others, could we avoid ever posting his vids or mentioning the guy, please? The mere sight of those three letters together turns my stomach. Thanks.

Paul Joseph Watson is a hateful moron who is absolutely wrong about just about everything, as just about everything he says is purely a reaction to things he hates for entirely spurious or racist reasons, and this describes absolutely everyone associated w Infowars. Just clearing that up for anybody unawares.


I think you mistook the thread for a Youtube comments section.



I really tried hard to be subtle, moderate, and as clear as possible about the *message / messenger distinction*, but apparently all the efforts in the world won't reach a dogmatic mind living in the prison of his own certainties, so firmly convinced of the superiority of his own morals, values and ideas that he won't even try to listen / read and process anything you calmly and rationally try to explain.

"who is absolutely wrong about just about everything": Such a marvelous sense of nuance! Intellectual honesty and fairness at their best! Yes, ALL, 100% of what he said is *necessarily* wrong, no matter what, without any exception! I'm pretty sure one day he said the Earth is round: WRONG! Or that other time he said 2 + 2 = 4: WRONG TOO! WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

"this describes absolutely everyone associated w ...": Same comments as above. You seem to love the word "absolutely", which is the sign of a high level of radicalism and closed-mindedness. People like this tend to see the world in a binary way, as white or black, good or bad, etc. with little to nothing in-between. And how wonderfully convenient that THEY stand on the good side.

About your last request: NO, I can't guarantee that we won't talk about him anymore. Because this thread hasn't been built around YOUR personal sensibilty and beliefs. We won't stop talking about something just because YOU don't like it or have a personal problem with it. If a discussion or some ideas bother you, then YOU should go elsewhere (there are places called Safe Spaces for that purpose), it's not everybody else that has to be muzzled, shut down, because YOU don't have the guts to confront a certain name, you precious little thing.

If we make the mistake of accepting such request, then you and others like you will start making more and more requests of the same kind, and in the end there won't be any more place for ANY discussion, and that will be the end of Liberty and Free Speech as we know it, which leads to what?

Fascism, of course.



PS: I said and I repeat: I think Alex Jones is nuts and Infowars is utter garbage. But, AGAIN, this has nothing to do about that video I posted, which was 100% about modern art.

PS: I said and I repeat: I think Alex Jones is nuts and Infowars is utter garbage. But, AGAIN, this has nothing to do about that video I posted, which was 100% about modern art.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/us/politics/alex-jones-defamation-suit-sandy-hook.html


In the five years since Noah Pozner was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., death threats and online harassment have forced his parents, Veronique De La Rosa and Leonard Pozner, to relocate seven times. They now live in a high-security community hundreds of miles from where their 6-year-old is buried.

“I would love to go see my son’s grave and I don’t get to do that, but we made the right decision,” Ms. De La Rosa said in a recent interview. Each time they have moved, online fabulists stalking the family have published their whereabouts.

I know that you concede Alex Jones and his ilk are garbage, and I concede that the topic of your posted video is not only relevant but sympathetic to this thread. But when the handiwork of these people leads to such a despicable result as that quoted above, don't be surprised when there's a backlash to referencing them. Frankly, I think these people have gone beyond being mere "weirdos and money-whores" and are actively stoking tensions and promoting violence.

I'm not really a contributor here anymore, and even if I were, it obviously wouldn't be my place to dictate what should and should not be posted. But the negative reaction to anyone associated with InfoWars is not mere ad hominem and wholly justified, IMO.

"who is absolutely wrong about just about everything": Such a marvelous sense of nuance! Intellectual honesty and fairness at their best! Yes, ALL, 100% of what he said is *necessarily* wrong, no matter what, without any exception! I'm pretty sure one day he said the Earth is round: WRONG! Or that other time he said 2 + 2 = 4: WRONG TOO! WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

You conveniently ignored the words "just about" here. No, he is not wrong about *literally* everything. It would be silly to claim otherwise. However, his views should at least give you pause. All that's been stated is that this guy is kind of a weirdo moron, and he's probably not a reliable or worthwhile source. But you won't hear any of it because he agrees with one thing you already believe. You rally for nuance, intellectual honesty, and fairness in defense of someone who fundamentally does not care about those values.

It's probably worth considering whether there are any voices who are better informed and less compromised that would be worth listening to instead.

I apologise if this is a bit blunt, but I think we should get back to talking about music. The points about the perception of modern art and how that relates to music are very interesting, but we're getting way off-topic now.

With that in mind, I want to ask a question about something that I read a few months back on this thread. I think it was Vinphonic who said that the worst period of orchestral soundtracks was either Spring or Summer 2001 (if it was someone else who said that, my apologies for not mis-remembering). What about that particular period was so bad or lacking in comparison to what came before or since? I'm genuinely curious to know more.

I think you mistook the thread for a Youtube comments section.


Holy crap lol. I literally just asked a simple request, but we only respect other poster's feelings until we don't I guess. Just bc you live by the mantra of seperating message from messenger doesn't mean everyone else is absolutely obligated to.

---------- Post added at 01:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:48 AM ----------


I think it was Vinphonic who said that the worst period of orchestral soundtracks was either Spring or Summer 2001 (if it was someone else who said that, my apologies for not mis-remembering). What about that particular period was so bad or lacking in comparison to what came before or since? I'm genuinely curious to know more.

Don't rmember anywhere near enough of 2001 to comment on the state of film music at large then, but the more 90's movies I watch lately, the less great of an era that decade seems in retrospect. I mean, it was, compared to now, but a ton of the scores not being produced by the old guard(Williams, Silvestri, Kamen, Elfman, Howard, etc) were pretty blase. That seems obvious, they were the cream of the crop, but there are a lot of movies always coming out, and aside from the odd Disney score and a few relatively new guys like Craig Armstrong and Goldenthal, there was a ton of recording hours devoted to lazy film scoring cliches and elfman-lite ommpah-oompah-oompahs of the most uninspired variety. There was still some great stuff happening, but when ya look at the wider picture, it's no wonder the sound of Zimmer and his ilk rose to rominence when so much of the opposing staple had grown so tired.

Again, not speaking neccesarily in contrast to whatever was happening in 2001.

EDIT: Iwasaki on City Hunter again YES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TnImjHwb7U

EDIT: Iwasaki on City Hunter again YES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TnImjHwb7USo a film version of Angel Heart? Angel Heart was a decent soundtrack marred by the usual mid-2000s Iwasaki budget limitations that led to awful synth for a good chunk of it. Hopefully that won't be a problem here, because the last thing everyone needs is another Dead Apple. Good to see him scoring a lot of films lately at least.

Oh yeah, it seems that Chinese movie he scored has been delayed indefinitely. So who knows if and when we will ever even get the soundtrack for that.


Also, on the subject of mid-2000s Iwasaki scores, Black Cat is seriously underrated. I have no idea why the general opinion seems to have placed it below the likes of Kekkaishi or Angel Heart when it's far more interesting than either, and notable of Iwasaki's first foray into opera, including using a counter-tenor, which he has never reused since. I would certainly put it over his barebones synth & strings efforts of NaTHaT and Witch Hunter Robin. The only really negative aspect of Black Cat is its horrible fake brass. Iwasaki's constant budget problems make Inai's and Fujisawa's look like nothing.

It's probably worth considering whether there are any voices who are better informed and less compromised that would be worth listening to instead.

see


Classical standard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLiiu7Dayds&t=4m52s) / Aesthetic relativism (modern art) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E8Nm3hun0g/)

;)



I did not know Paul Joseph Watson's background. And I didn't know him at all before seeing this video, which appeared spontaneously on my Youtube frontpage some time ago. I'm glad that it did.

So, again, I chose to repost this video, not because I'm affiliated in any way, shape or form with the same groups as the creator, but because it's a) a really good video, clear and to the point, b) well-documented and illustrated with good examples, and c) ultimately true. I can't disagree with anything he says; it's a really accurate description and honest assessment of the current state of Art.

He really can't be clearer than that.

That said, I understand the frustration about these internet talking heads but I conjure the words of Father Dougal that we should get it all back on track.


@MastaMist: Iwasaki also returns for Stray Dogs 3 so he will most likely continue to complain being busy :D


@Matt: Since Oshima is among my favorites as well, that's a pretty nice list of choices. I especially think Keiji Inai has that "big classic Hollywood moment" gene that could really flourish given the right opportunity. I place my bets on his first film score next year.

@FatherDougal: Sakura Wars: The Movie and Spirits Within came out in 2001 so if I said that it must have been some sort of quip. I do however think Winter 2001 and Spring 2002 to be among the weakest anime seasons ever.


EDIT: AND FINALLY... a tease... I will just say Warsaw is back on the menu boys...

So a film version of Angel Heart? Angel Heart was a decent soundtrack marred by the usual mid-2000s Iwasaki budget limitations that led to awful synth for a good chunk of it. Hopefully that won't be a problem here, because the last thing everyone needs is another Dead Apple. Good to see him scoring a lot of films lately at least.

Oh yeah, it seems that Chinese movie he scored has been delayed indefinitely. So who knows if and when we will ever even get the soundtrack for that.


Also, on the subject of mid-2000s Iwasaki scores, Black Cat is seriously underrated. I have no idea why the general opinion seems to have placed it below the likes of Kekkaishi or Angel Heart when it's far more interesting than either, and notable of Iwasaki's first foray into opera, including using a counter-tenor, which he has never reused since. I would certainly put it over his barebones synth & strings efforts of NaTHaT and Witch Hunter Robin. The only really negative aspect of Black Cat is its horrible fake brass. Iwasaki's constant budget problems make Inai's and Fujisawa's look like nothing.

Angel Heart is only one of Iwasaki's best scores in my book, so color me pumped/cautiously optimistic. The synth in it was really never that bad. Black Cat, meanwhile, had some standouts, but is mainly the tropey tropefest a lot of Iwasaki fans peg it as. Prolly deserves to be remembered better than Robin or Yakitate, but not by much.


I conjure the words of Father Dougal that we should get it all back on track.

I conjure the words that maybe some of you be more willing to listen to your fellow poster's complaints and issues without being such ostentatiously loud, stupid, hypocritical, self-righteous naggy ponces about it. But that's just my precious little opinion. *stupid insincere winky face*

VVVVVV It got "out of hand", fyi, when that nimrod called me a fascist for politely asking to not spread the words of a fascist, and sure, I'm already ignoring him(AGAIN), but I'm not gonna let it go just cuz u crawled up my ass about it because you have no power over me. Thanks.

Enough. I may not be a forum moderator, but if you want to keep talking about this, do so through PMs or however else you wish to discuss this particular topic. But this thread's topic is about music, and I feel we should get back to that before things get out of hand. Thanks.

@Vinphonic: It has been months since I read that, and I can't even remember when you said it, so I likely did get the time wrong. But in that case, what about Winter 2001/Spring 2002 made that particular period the worst for anime orchestral music? I'm interested to know.

Sigh, THE POINT was about modern art, with my spin giving a bit more insight into whats the difference between modern and classical art, how that translates to music and how we should never lose the appreciation for classical arts, a universal standard of skills anybody can learn, and how we can strive for inheriting the past and being the best we can be, not merely making statements about what we like/hate and not abandoning all rules and tools and what has come before that have accumulated over the centuries of musical masters because Zimmer lives by "threw all rules overboard", "you don't need to strive for great things" and "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and all that crap that enables absolute arrogance and lack of craftsmanship among young composers today that make real musicans lifes miserable. We should fight against that. We can see and hear what other parts of the world are doing, and how music in 2018 can sound like. Fuck declaring the 80s over, fuck declaring 60s TV music cheesy, fuck declaring romanticism outdated. Let's keep musical styles and history alive, like a certain island on the other side of the world leads by example.

Just LISTEN to the music of past decades and centuries. If it enriched and inspired peoples lifes then, it absolutely can today. Fight againts the "noise-smiths" and sound-designers (this does not mean to not incorporate loops or electronics or all kinds of sounds you want, but to use them after you learn how to write and read music. See Iwasaki writing and notating his electronic tools on a piece of paper/notation software first before performing them). That was the point.

The rest is misunderstandings I'm sure. We shouldn't let things go out of hand again so close to the last incident. We're all pretty much worked up about things (or personas) that don't deserve being this worked up about. In the heat of the moment we all say things we perhaps didn't mean and wouldn't have said under different circumstances.

In the words of Josh Barron: Try Peace and Love :)

Btw a "fascist" might develop a cure for cancer, but you won't have any?


That's all I have to say on that.



@FatherDougal: Mostly personal opinion/bias. For my legacy projects I checked the various seasons for goodies I could include in my anime music post a couple of months back.

But in the case of W2001/Sp2002, the vast majority of shows were pretty much garbage synth and/or obnoxious music. Maybe its because I don't view the anime medium on a decline but on average I infinitely prefer the output of composers nowadays not on my list of favorites compared to back then. There was no big orchestral score for instance. Matsuo and Tanaka did some nice little ones but hardly even their A game and we got Hirano with a studio orchestra but that was not the composer he can be.

Spring 2002 was the most crushing disappointment, Sahashi had two scores and they are his weakest ever (Whistle and Rizelmine), Akifuma Tada had two scores and both were synth crap aka his weakest ever (5 min of real orchestra) and the rest was either synth crap or obnoxious music (and generic Kajiura... remember when she dominated the seasons, good thing thats over now). The ONLY thing I liked was Tanaka's Gate Keepers 21, hardly his best. So yeah, might be the worst anime season ever.

For reference ten years later we had Space Brothers, Fujiko Mine, Hyouka, AKB0048, Saint Seiya Omega, Inazuma Eleven Chrono Stone, Ozuma, Fate/Zero, Yamato 2199 and Berserk Golden Age II.






Since things are getting pretty heated now, we all need some cooling. I think I've called the right person for the job:




ladatree presents:

Shiro Hamaguchi
Megumi no Daigo
The Warsaw Philharmonic, conducted by Mario Clemens



Download
(https://mega.nz/#!b75E2KjD!wLX3_7KNsABLC1p8AH3P2fA8ZnVsJgBA8vgBES6-Y-4)
Sample (http://picosong.com/w4PrC/)

The rep goes to ladatree who is responsible for this marvel.
This is what happens when the Japanese rip off a Hollywood blockbuster (you know what I'm talking about).

And look who conducted in Warsaw recently :D

https://twitter.com/i/status/1024811612753018887

This will be dope:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1HU4aalLU

According to Shiro he also had a recording in AIR Studios (might be this, I'm guessing the new Evangelion) (https://twitter.com/i/status/1023703049829863424) and one in Vienna together with Amano.

Angel Heart is only one of Iwasaki's best scores in my book, so color me pumped/cautiously optimistic. The synth in it was really never that bad. Black Cat, meanwhile, had some standouts, but is mainly the tropey tropefest a lot of Iwasaki fans peg it as. Prolly deserves to be remembered better than Robin or Yakitate, but not by much.I found Angel Heart to be a watered-down lower budget version of 009-1 and ROD, though it did have some nice tender pieces here and there. Black Cat, I would say the opposite and don't think is anywhere near as tropey as some other Iwasaki works, and that's probably why a lot of people don't seem to like it. Unlike Kekkaishi and the brunt of his later works, there's no Lotus Juice, no blend of 20 genres, no filtered trumpets, no crazy jazz or electronic experiments- it's just a straightforward score with some solid themes and vocal writing. I guess you could call the synth and fake instruments a trope, since it plagued most of Iwasaki's scores from that era, but I don't really think that was intentional on his part. Yakitate is also underrated and should be remembered for those wonderful Copland-esque orchestral tracks on the second soundtrack, which are some of the best pieces in Iwasaki's scoring career.

I don't understand other Iwasaki fans that well. I hated Dead Apple and Qualidea Code and yet those two seem to be universally loved now outside of these forums?


And look who conducted in Warsaw recently :D

https://twitter.com/i/status/1024811612753018887Probably won't be another Giant Robo, but the potential is there for some pieces of that magnitude, hopefully without Sagisu's screeching e-guitars.

The anime score I can think of in Winter 2001 that I liked was Tanaka's One Piece Movie 2-Clockwork Island Adventure.

For Spring 2002, I also liked Tanaka's Gate Keepers 21.

This will be dope:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1HU4aalLU



Hey, this sounds pretty interesting. I admit to not having listened to as much of Sagisu's soundtracks as I would have liked to, partially because I felt that it's been somewhat formulaic in a few regards in recent years (action cues with electronic percussion, four-person choirs singing silly English lyrics, electronic guitar work by CHOKKAKU). But this sounds like it's going for what sounds like a throwback to some of the fanfare-type music I felt Sagisu did quite well in the original Evangelion, and having Amano around to use his experiences to create the music could make for a nice change of pace. I don't care for the show, but I'll look forward to the music.

Also, thank you linking to his Twitter account, because I decided to give it a look and stumbled across this:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1023399196529975296

I don't really have much of an issue when it comes to Sagisu's trademark choir (repetitiveness aside), but this is the first time that choir has given me chills. Seriously, I'm kind of surprised the choir hasn't been used to perform slower, more ethereal pieces considering how good they are at it. I love how simple the melody is, but that it still manages to convey a powerful feeling through the harmony. The way that the piece changes key through a descending of notes just gets me every time I listen to it, and I've been listening to it a lot in the last hour or so despite its short length. If this is appearing on that upcoming Anison album, I'm really hoping that this is just a choir-only piece. It could work with an orchestra, but I've been dying for a really good Sagisu choir-only song since End of Evangelion (the choral version of Where Your Heart Belongs from Shiro's Songbook Xpressions is pretty good, but it does nothing for me).

---

@Vinphonic: Could you direct me to a thread or wherever for me to get Kohei Tanaka's music for Fallen Leaves Collage? I decided to listen to that video you linked in that recent Tanaka post (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCnIf1kckbA&feature=youtu.be), and I like what I've heard so far. I also want to try and analyse the music through my form of synaethesia, as you suggested about a week back. If you, or indeed anyone else, could, that would be pretty awesome. Thank you.

Been listening to Angel Heart again and oh man, still one of Iwasaki's best. The jazz, mmmm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJQF3aBBT3c&index=2&list=PL904E7B8245683456&t=0s

Still one of his best orchestral pieces imo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tq2cach4m0&list=PL904E7B8245683456&index=6
Certain works from later scores were more active or experimental, but I've rarely heard a more effective and vivid interplay of tones and back-and-forth timbre from him as this.

Angel Heart was apparently told from a more feminine POV. I have to wonder what a move to a more standard macho City Hunter plotline starring the Boner guy himself will spell for the sound Iwasaki crafts this time. Hope it's more jazzy and less Bungou.

---------- Post added at 05:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:40 PM ----------


I found Angel Heart to be a watered-down lower budget version of 009-1 and ROD, though it did have some nice tender pieces here and there. Black Cat, I would say the opposite and don't think is anywhere near as tropey as some other Iwasaki works, and that's probably why a lot of people don't seem to like it. Unlike Kekkaishi and the brunt of his later works, there's no Lotus Juice, no blend of 20 genres, no filtered trumpets, no crazy jazz or electronic experiments- it's just a straightforward score with some solid themes and vocal writing.


Those are Iwasaki's particular stylistic bugbears and favored tricks. I'm talking about just classic, plain-jane musical tropes and ideas that have existed in scoring and cartoons for years, tropes from within and without shounen anime conventions. Exciting theme w slow, sensitive sounding piano reprise. Twangy country guitar for the rogue character. Goofy doofy comedy scene filler. Spooky scary atmospherics and beat-heavy action music and epic choirs(however nice it is that Iwasaki decided to write in the form of an opera for some of it). It's p much all there, and I agree I don't think BC deserves to be looked at as disfavorably as it always is; the main theme is fine and I quite like that twangy guitar and opera piece...buuuut for my money, it's not heavy in the sorta sound I most enjoy from him, and while his unique voice is still clear, there's really only so much he does to elevate the very common kinds of material here. Iwasaki rarely sounds like any other composer, but in BC he kinda does, and that's most likely why fans tend to overlook it over other entries in his career.

I like Qualidea Code.

@FatherDougal:

As far as I know he has always used Amano for his orchestral music since the 2010s. And we got GREAT music out of their collaboration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRFARaZ8EU&list=PLAY2aAj333CqENUzLJGoKqseenZi_8gWf)

I feel they have become very close friends judging by the behind-the-scenes stuff so its safe to say where's Sagisu there's Amano. I also find it interesting regarding Gridman that he lists Amano not as a mere conductor but more as his companion, so I would say Amano should contribute quite a lot. Needless to say everything about this production just seems perfect. It has spirit. So hopefully they both get a little inspired.

What I really want from Gridman is something even Magi BARELY had, levity. All his recent works have been dark, brooding and doom so imagine a whole score of heroism and silly fun, basically I want a more lighthearted Giant Robo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsUMmMGRDr0&list=PLAY2aAj333CqENUzLJGoKqseenZi_8gWf&index=10&t=3m)




I'm kind of surprised the choir hasn't been used to perform slower pieces

It was... Best piece (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q-BRLK5xMU&list=PLAY2aAj333Cq_Vt5f_2EvQ333MGDZ3oRf&index=9)

As for the usual pieces, there's actually a fair amount I like.

The best Video Game Boss music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv3MmcvcddM)
Tortured Souls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwe1-Clo9Y)

That said, it may be silly to us but to the Japanese English probably sounds as gibberish as Shirley Walker's Mask of the Phantasm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgDpesd428&start_radio=1&list=RD4xgDpesd428

So we should approach Sagisu's work from a Japanese perspective, to him (and the intended audience) english sounds as exotic as latin.




@Tanaka: That's actually all of Tanaka's "orchestral" music from the album.


On that note, while I uphold Tanaka as the heart of anime music, the one who can best promote the medium itself (and the whole Japanese entertainment for that matter), would be Sagisu/Amano:

This is Anime (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVQwr_Pd_0I&list=PLg0McXZeBSsgu-0XfTPec_m1XQWEOG9Sx&index=3) / This is silly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzPqgOl3A4o)

I'm also really excited for his Anison album, I mean, this is what we got just from the Outtakes of a single film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twl3rXgqrKE&index=19&list=PLsymDmsUy3c4Jv9eqoUyNXHfTh_KUZiPk)



And last but not least, time to listen to the most epic James Bond score again ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xglxa9IKCw&t=7m28s

So one thing I always thought would be interesting to ask the people here: Were it not for Zimmer and his wannabes taking over the Hollywood scoring scene in the mid-2000s, who were the up-and-coming voices that missed their chance to shine? Were there any interesting newer orchestral composers in that time that have simply fallen off the grid/gone into different fields since then due to lack of opportunities in Hollywood?

In the words of Josh Barron: Try Peace and Love :)[/CENTER]

I believe that has been the only time someone has said "In the words of Josh Barron" lol. Still Peace and love is, in my view, what music should be able to accomplish where spoken and written language fail. I've seen it. Yo-Yo Ma has continued to perform even in Iran with the Silk Road Ensemble and is a messenger of peace within the United Nations. Bach's sarabande from Suite No. 2 was played at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Go back further and you can see that Shostakovich was considered to be a symbol of Nazi resistance during WW2 (specifically his 7th Symphony written during the time of the seige of Stalingrad). Fr�d�ric Ramel, political analyst, puts it quite well in this statement: "Musicians create a dialogue and arrive at common policies". In addition to seeing it happen and reading about it, I have a band called The Travelers VGM. We take game music and turn it into folk music from various countries, sometimes even fusing those styles together. The instruments are all performed live and our mission is to raise awareness of diversity in culture, sexual orientation, religion and non-religion, race, etc. Currently I am working on some charity work with them so we can help bring families separated at the border together.

Herbie Hancock said it best (paraphrasing here): It is our responsibility as musicians and composers to be ambassadors for peace around the world. Anyway, peace and love :)

You seem to be living a beautiful life, my friend. Glad to see you're doing well, and much, much luck in your projects! :)



Just to complement (and not contradict) what you said, music can, and has also been used in much less pacific situations. Wagner inspired the nazis, who abundantly used his music for propaganda and the exaltation of German Nationalism. Richard Strauss had some pretty dubious relationships with the same people, up to the point of becoming president of the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber). He was later rejected by the nazis for "difference of views", to his credit.

More generally, we must remember that music has been used in various forms to boost the morale of armies (military marches), or to exalt a nation's sense of pride and patriotism (hymns, operas, even symphonies).



Music is a powerful force, and it can be used for the best and worst of intentions.

Actually, that reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask for a while: what are your favourite national anthems?

I only know about three national anthems: Star Spangled Banner (which is actually pretty good as an instrumental piece), the anthem for France (which I continually mistake as the anthem for Britian for one reason or another), and Auld Lang Syne (temporarily the national anthem for South Korea in the late 40's, so it'll count). And I'd like to know what other national anthems are out there, or even songs that were national anthems at some point. Just to know what pieces countries round the world consider to best represent them or some sense of national pride.

@Vinphonic: Thank you for sending me those pieces of music from Fallen Leaves Collage. I'll try and review the first one of them through my synaethesic perspective at some point in the next few days if I can, but they're all very lovely in general. Thank you for that, and have a good day!

Because three is company I'll complement too :D

Music from different cultures and nations can also be used by others without the historical pretext and circumstances it was used/composed for. So if it gets incorpotated into a different media world from a different culture, there is no "verboten" mentality which might add to the one in a million chance a scoring place were all musical styles can coexist was born. Elgar's Pomp and Circumstances maybe a patriotic piece of music to some but it can also be used as promotional inspiring ad music "why not, it sounds good": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2oHqJaVikE. Of course the same goes for the fifth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjx_GyJbhsU


In such a world one of the most, if not the most popular media franchise can be a series were music originally intended for killing on a battlefield is transformed into tunes of sportsmanship, national differences that used to be about segregation are celebrated as different ways of life that form a united identity and tools of violence and murder are embraced as tools of engineering genius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u71Ji38Rd_0

It's very interesting to see it as an example of a mentality that does judge music and other cultural outputs not based on its history but purely on its appeal and quality. Upon closer inspection such series puts an incredibly optimistic spin on the dark aspects of humanity... or its just some dumb anime thats stupidly popular because it has tanks and cute girls in it. You be the judge.


Imagine a vortex that sucks in all music ever composed regardless of what and why it was composed... and the same goes for other cultural outputs as well... and really, in 10.000 years, would anyone care were it came from and not just be glad it's there? "It's good".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym8_XE8OuT0





@Dougal: Russian Hymn, La Marseillaise, Risen from Ruin, Jerusalem, God save the Queen

Best use in a film score... Carl Davis Napoleon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWS6ck2WTPk


@Matt: This is actually more difficult than I thought... maybe Benjamin Wallfish in classical mode, Kevin Kaska, maybe unbutchered Patrick Doyle. Maybe it was doomed to fail.

Actually, that reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask for a while: what are your favourite national anthems?

I only know about three national anthems: Star Spangled Banner (which is actually pretty good as an instrumental piece), the anthem for France (which I continually mistake as the anthem for Britian for one reason or another), and Auld Lang Syne (temporarily the national anthem for South Korea in the late 40's, so it'll count). And I'd like to know what other national anthems are out there, or even songs that were national anthems at some point. Just to know what pieces countries round the world consider to best represent them or some sense of national pride.


Look no further, my friend! Here I think you pretty much have all existing national anthems, free to listen and download!


http://www.anthemworld.com/


And if you want to know about the history and context of these anthems, this database will be very helpful.


http://www.nationalanthems.info/



I personally haven't heard many anthems, because it's kind of very specialized form / genre. It really is a local thing: you generally get to know an anthem when you get to know the country of this anthem (people all over the world rarely listen to the Kazakhstan or the Papua New Guinea national anthem while driving or taking the bus).

Actually, the two only anthems / hymns (both forms are very close) that really made a great impression to me are FAKE ones, in the sense that they have been written specially for movies, i.e. fictional settings.

The first one is the fantastic opening theme from The Hunt For Red October: a massive, majestic piece for large orchestra and choir, intentionally and largely inspired by russian anthems. The result is a grandiose piece that I find more complex and considerably more appealing than any other REAL anthems I've heard. The brilliant writing of this piece might come from the fact that Poledouris was fascinated by choral music from an early age:


The other element that influenced me early on had to do with my Greek Orthodox raising where I used to sit in church and just be enthralled with the choir. So, there are a lot of Gregorian modal ideas in my music that go back to that.
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/articles/2004/14_Jul---Basil_Poledouris_Interview.asp


Basil Poledouris
Hymn To Red October (from The Hunt For Red October)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prpdKVHt9Uw



But without contest, my favorite piece of this nature is the simply ASTONISHING "Dry Your Tears, �frika" from Amistad, by Grandmaster John, of course (not to be confused with Grandmaster Flash, these two get mixed up a lot). Like many other Williams pieces, this one is an *instant classic*. It's like it existed somewhere, virtually, in the universe, and Williams just captured it and channeled it through him to give it a material existence, so that us simple human beings get to have the privilege to enjoy it. This is one of the rare pieces that give me goosebumps and tears of joy since years.


John Williams
Dry Your Tears, �frika (from Amistad)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZb8ofIgVy8

not the biggest fan of two steps from hell but thomas bergersens brand new symphony american dream is quite spectacular,especially as continues 45min track.

Well I am really wishing I could share with you all my latest work. It is the largest orchestration I have done in my entire career. I can say it is an orchestration of a Yasunori Mitsuda piece and the orchestra and choir will be recorded, however, my percussion will be VST. But don't worry, the percussion isn't featured heavily ;).

I am really wishing you could share it too!

Ditto!

Actually, I wanted to ask you to post some samples, but since you looked busy, I thought it would be better to let you work peacefully! Looking forward to hearing that!



Hater: (please change this name, you're generally the opposite) Thomas Bergersen is the kind of composer who is very capable and talented, and tends to have some real highs and real lows (when he gives in to the Remote Control style which is so popular among certain types of audience). But in these moments when he is really *himself* and goes full symphonic glory, the result is really remarkable. Check this one:

High C's (Recording Session Footage)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGh4FcZKekA

I think the percussion is sampled, and there seems to be only two flute players making up the wind section, maybe one on piccolo. It's hard to tell because the camera never pans to them.

Does it matter, this is modern western orchestral film music, what are woodwinds and how do we use them? ;)

AND IT SEEMS THE ONLY WAY TO WRITE A PIECE OF MUSIC THESE DAYS THATS AT LEAST ATTEMPTING MELODIC WRITING IS TO BE SURE TO BE VERY DAMN LOUD! POWELL STYLE BABY!

This music is sooo cheesy, as soon as that choir came in... :D

I would also note that an Orchestra consisting of a full Brass, Strings and Choir section and "ONE" woodwind is an abomination. An orchestra is something along the line of 12 Brass + 12 Woodwinds + 48 Strings + 8 Percussion with balanced section sizes. It can deviate of course but remember orchestral balance... please... Woodwinds, never forget (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7v7CbXnDTk&list=PLF2Zbj2mhHf7FAR-59sXEOorlITEWRHm-&index=7)

It's all good to get someone interested into orchestral music, but nowadays, to me at least, I would rather listen to Mars from the Planets again and take notes how it is not fff all the time, but a piece that has a story to tell, it builds, has ebb and flow, interesting orchestral colors, excellent dynamic range, strong melodies and catchy rythm.

I know its unfair to compare it to a piece of production music, which is written in a certain style but its frustrating because this could have been so much more. I also share the opinion Bergersen is very capable... but talented?... for me only in a business sense ;)

As a reminder, this is also production music: https://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/album/hollywood-blockbusters_1725
There's actually quite a bunch of talented people (according to me) writing for production music companies, including Debbie Wiseman.

Mahler and Ravel, in addition to Holst, have also laid all the groundwork for impactful epic music that few people seem to take notice of what makes these pieces "feel epic". They have shown us THE POWER to go from quiet to loud. Trivia: Epic is the contrast between very quiet and bombastic loudness, even in the same piece of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVhHUezPfG4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIBkhmDit8


Just loud all the time from every instrument makes it a very static piece of music, enjoyable, but no emotional core and it just doesn't feel alive.

Nice fluff sums up how I feel about the TSFH crew at their best. I enjoy their pure orchestral writing *sometimes* and think their Two Steps from Heaven, this High C piece and bunch of others are good for what they are, but I am still reluctant to give it any praise. That's my bias of course.



On the other side, it seems like I was very much underselling a score from this season, High Score Girl.
It's not only Yoko Shimomura but also Shingo Nishimura AND Akifumi Tada contributing, and sure enough, listen to these delightful pieces:

http://picosong.com/w4jM4/

Unfortunately, it's the one score this season without a soundtrack announcement... a shame if it doesn't get released.

AND IT SEEMS THE ONLY WAY TO WRITE A PIECE OF MUSIC THESE DAYS THATS AT LEAST ATTEMPTING MELODIC WRITING IS TO BE SURE TO BE VERY DAMN LOUD! POWELL STYLE BABY!Don't forget "instruments playing very fast ostinatos"- cause the last thing the composer wants to do is have the people actually hear whatever little there is of his musical substance underneath. All it's missing now is the drumkit.

A true successor to John Williams, guys!

Vinphonic: I'm not sure we listened to the same piece here. :D

Loud is intrinsically bad now? A composer can't write anything that is MEANT to be loud anymore without being dissed?

And of course there's not only ONE woodwind. There are several in fact, including at least two RIGHT from the beginning!

I *think* my years of listening experience and study do help *a little* when it comes to making the difference between a crummy trailer-like piece and a beautiful, complex and well-written piece (especially that williams-esque part in the last quarter). ;)



I think the percussion is sampled, and there seems to be only two flute players making up the wind section, maybe one on piccolo. It's hard to tell because the camera never pans to them.


Yes, and I'm not a fan of those remixed strings that sound like they're fake. Very smart guys! Spend some big bucks on a real string ensemble and make it sound like a cheap sampler! If you've got too much money on your hands, please donate to charity instead.

Fortunately, I've also heard a bunch of pieces by Bergersen performed by a big orchestra where he really goes big Hollywood cinematic mode. These pieces are exemplary done, highly professional and great to listen. If you can get to listen to them, you'll see what I'm talking about. (Can't post them because forbidden)

Here's another proof of Bergersen talent. It's not a real orchestra, and it's way too percussions-heavy, but if you listen *beyond* these flaws and focus on the complexity and diversity of the action writing, this really is an excellent piece. Make sure you listen to it entirely (it's 10-minute long) because at various specific points the music gets really amazing (don't listen just to a minute or so and then tell me: meh, it's usual trailer stuff - because it's not).


Thomas Bergersen - That's a Wrap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3sf7NxMTqY


(And I'm really, really pleased to still see you around after ten years, you big academic freak!)

Loud is intrinsically bad now? A composer can't write anything that is MEANT to be loud anymore without being dissed?Being loud isn't the problem, it's when it's loud merely to mask the music underneath to make it sound more impressive than it actually is. A piece can be loud but still have incredible harmonic combinations and dynamic range, both of which are missing in Bergersen piece. Just ask Alex North:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lKsgg6ZpzU

Bergersen's orchestral music is typical of someone untrained as a classical composer having to rely on an army of orchestrators slapping a bunch of fast-moving instruments and Hollywood cliches on top and amplifying the music he wrote, which might as well have come from PotC. You can put edible gold and caviar on top of mashed potatoes, but you're still going to get mashed potatoes that tastes like mashed potatoes.

Obviously it's a big cut above trailer and typical RC stuff like WW, but that's not really saying much, especially when you have composers like Iwasaki and Goldenthal that can spin RC cliches on their head and do something interesting with the music that only someone with the skill and experience of being classically trained could pull off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTe4AzbiMp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej5qLqN3Dds

Even if these two pieces are oozing with RC stylings, it's the opposite of Bergersen's piece where the underlying music and orchestral expertise still stands out regardless of the RC whip cream on top.

As a reminder, this is also production music: https://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/album/hollywood-blockbusters_1725
There's actually quite a bunch of talented people (according to me) writing for production music companies, including Debbie Wiseman.
That Superheroes track sounds so much richer because of the use of winds and harp. I just wish it didn't stick so closely to the Superman theme model.

Magic Carpet Ride seems to be based on Silvestri's Father of the Bride.

Ditto!

Actually, I wanted to ask you to post some samples, but since you looked busy, I thought it would be better to let you work peacefully! Looking forward to hearing that!



Hater: (please change this name, you're generally the opposite) Thomas Bergersen is the kind of composer who is very capable and talented, and tends to have some real highs and real lows (when he gives in to the Remote Control style which is so popular among certain types of audience). But in these moments when he is really *himself* and goes full symphonic glory, the result is really remarkable. Check this one:

High C's (Recording Session Footage)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGh4FcZKekA

my name has nothing to do with my attitude.its a character from a series of parodies i wrote (think snake plissken) almost two decades ago and then played as him for years in star wars pen and paper rpg.jedi bountyhunter.

I assume people who've heard Bergersen's newest work here did so through streaming? I haven't seen it up for the taking anywhere yet. Quite strange for a TSFH title.

Ditto! Actually, I wanted to ask you to post some samples, but since you looked busy, I thought it would be better to let you work peacefully! Looking forward to hearing that!


I unfortunately can't share the Mitsuda one, but I can share stuff from my upcoming string album :).

Soaring Wings from Unlimited SaGa for String Quintet - https://soundcloud.com/josh-barron/soaring-wings-string-quintet-version
DG Sadness from Unlimited SaGa for Violin, Cello, and Piano - https://soundcloud.com/josh-barron/dg-sadness-for-violin-cello-and-piano-trio
Companions that Surpassed Their Tribe from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for Strings - https://soundcloud.com/josh-barron/companions-who-surpassed-their-tribe-for-string-ensemble
Warning Call from Mirror's Edge Catalyst for String Orchestra - https://soundcloud.com/josh-barron/warning-call-for-string-orchestra-demo-preview/s-cGkBl

These are all synth mockups, however the final finished product will be recorded with live instruments. They will all be part of my next album featuring mostly music from Masashi Hamauzu and Hitoshi Sakimoto with an original piece by me and one from Mirror's Edge Catalyst.

Thanks for the updates. I'm really looking forward to Sakimoto.


@arthierr: I did listen through the whole thing, you should think better of me! I just don't find it all that exciting. I didn't "diss" it (funny way to spell friendly and honest criticism) but I could call it an outtake of HTTYD 3 ;)
If you ask me if there's one thing our side doesn't need more of, then its loud music and unnatural orchestra setups. We need more of this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMM-3JOV2ck&index=20&list=PLRtkK6TD_2LJDJWbnKaL5z2OkNeE2V2YA). I really enjoy High C's, even the little wink to Goldsmith... but you know... maybe Tango's spirit is haunting me.

For reference, if we are talking about beautiful, complex and well-written, I think of this (http://picosong.com/w4QPJ/), maybe because I'm pretty much living on the sunny side :D








Harumi Fuuki
NHK Taiga Drama: Segodon (Part 1?)
NHK Studio Orchestra (Vocals: Sarah Alainn)



Download (https://mega.nz/#!vnZwQSLZ!dzdZNKBHvASB6R6GZKRfIM10Sew-5Eihd1ljPpv95Aw)
I didn't know Princess Leia had a Japanese sister, but here it was discovered (http://picosong.com/w4QUH/)

A third album should appear at the end of the year but this is already enough for a little 90 minute film score arrangement. I hope you like the Main Theme because it appears a lot. Thumbs up for leitmotif.
This is what Harumi Fuuki can do. Her career is still taking off but it looks like she also wants to be an anime regular with a show in fall so I'll await her first big orchestral score. Segodon only really got maybe 20 minutes recorded with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in a hall, the rest is the NHK Studio ensemble. She certainly has set eyes on prestigeous projects so maybe Warsaw one day. Expect Horner and Williams.

I look forward to Powell's HTTYD3 though, I loved his other two.. he did an even greater job in 2, let's hope in 3 he can go orchestral again.

Talking about HTYDD, it's getting a symphonic tour.

Vinphonic: don't overthink it, dude ;) Let's simply say I found your initial tone a little too sarcastic to my taste (happily it quickly gets better after that). And when I asked to listen to the whole piece before judging, I didn't mean you or streich specifically, it was a general recommandation to anyone trying it. But again, peace. :) And thanks for this new one! The cover is uh, how to put it... original.



OrchestralGamer: thanks for the samples! Nothing too fancy, some sleek, tasteful string arrangements, respectful of the original pieces. I personally would recommend adding a few more instruments to enhance such kind of pieces without going over the top: typically some harp, pizzicato, harpsichord, glockenspiel, and a touch of flute / oboe / clarinet would greatly flesh out the music while keeping that restrained and elegant feel of a mainly string piece.

Also, as soon as that orchestral piece you were talking about is ready, make sure to post it here! This thread is hungry for such things, so now that you've excited our appetite, you'd better deliver, mister. ;)



The Zipper: truly spoken like a younger me. Daddy is so proud!

Seriously, I see your point and I can't disagree, but no matter what, those Bergersen pieces can't seriously be considered as mediocre, cheesy or clich�. That's my opinion and I share it (c'est mon opinion et je la partage, as we say in my country).

no matter what, those Bergersen pieces can't seriously be considered as mediocre, cheesy or clich�.To each his own. But sounding like HTTYD isn't something I would consider a sign of exemplary music.


The Zipper: truly spoken like a younger me. Daddy is so proud!Yes, you're clearly the adult here for enjoying something that sounds temp-tracked to those monthly cookie-cutter Dreamworks and Pixar cartoons with strict guidelines by production committees to be as appealing to the ears of little kids as possible.

In all seriousness dude, just because Tango is gone doesn't mean we need more passive-aggressive insults.

??? That's insult to you? Looks like my style of humour sometimes gets misunderstood… You'll get used to it eventually. ;)



Good night everyone. :)

Vinphonic: I haven't listened to the rest of the pieces (I wasn't able to due to heading up to Country Clare for a few days), but I did find time to listen to Risen from Ruins and I want to thank you for that recommendation. It's a dang beautiful song! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7wlz_HIqRA)

The thing that stands out to me is the key of the song, which seems to be in F Major. I tend to associate this key with a darker blue, but it works quite well in the context of the song by carrying multiple feelings. On the one hand, there's a quiet melancholia that bears the pain of having gone through a terrible disaster, but there's also a sense of optimism and trying to stand back up to keep moving forward. This is accentuated by the use of a choir (something that I've only realized lately that I'm a sucker for), who sing about coming together to create a brighter, better tomorrow. It's honestly pretty inspiring, and the historical context of this being used as West and East Germany reunited adds a poignancy that gives me a slight shiver (in a good way, don't worry).

Otherwise, it's a simple but memorable tune with some great orchestral arrangement, and I think I'm starting to see why national anthems can be held in such reverence, even if just for the sheer quality of the music. Thank you for giving me the chance to listen to it, and I'll try to listen to the other pieces and comment on them.

https://twitter.com/taque68/status/1028428146951909376

Sounds like another Akame, more e-guitars and pounding percussion. Iwasaki says that there he supposedly isn't using strings for his new anime and was writing something difficult/serious on a technical level, but not only is there nothing in this trailer that sounds like him seriously trying, it's also blatantly using violins contrary to what he had said. Unless something is being lost in translation here.